HomeMy Public PortalAbout06/24/97 Special CCM139
MEDINA CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES OF JUNE 24, 1997
The City Council of Medina, Minnesota met in special session June 24, 1997, at 7:00 p.m. in
the City Hall Council Chambers. Mayor John Ferris presided.
Members present: John Ferris, John Hamilton, Ann Thies, and Phil Zietlow.
Members absent: Jim Johnson.
Also present: Interim Police Chief Ed Belland, Public Works Director Jim Dillman, City
Prosecutor Steve Tallen, City Attorney Ron Batty (arrived approximately 8:45) and Clerk -
Treasurer Paul Robinson
1. Adoption of the Agenda
Moved by Ann Thies seconded by John Ferris to adopt the published agenda with the
following additions:
A. Leah Jedlicka Prosecution Issue.
Motion passed unanimously.
2. Leah Jedlicka Prosecution Issue
Steve Tallen asked the city council if they would like to appeal a ruling made by the judge in
the Leah Jedlicka case. He said the Leah Jedlicka case pertained to a 20 year old woman
who got in a traffic accident on Highway 55 and killed a man on the highway. She was found
to have had been drinking underage. Officer Rouillard gave her an intoxilyzer test and she
came up with a .04% alcohol in her blood system. The judge in this case ruled that this
evidence was inadmissible. Steve Tallen said that he would like to appeal that ruling. He said
that the down side of this appeal was that it would cost the city $2,000 plus the time for the city
prosecutor.
Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by John Hamilton, to move forward with a motion to appeal.
Motion passed unanimously.
3. City Hall Addition
Phil Zietlow said that he was looking for feedback on the city hall addition plans presented at
the previous council meeting and would like authorization from the city council to move forward
with this project.
Ann Thies asked if the officers had any input. Ed Belland said that the officers met for a
couple of hours, looked at the design, and talked about different alternatives and whether or
not if the current plan would work.
There was some discussion about the garage doors and an outside entrance to the garage.
Ed Belland said that the officers thought they would need more storage for the oxygen tanks,
first aid kits, etc.
There was some discussion about whether or not this would work and the council decided to
add a small closet in the booking room. There was some discussion about camera locations.
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John Hamilton said that he thought the city should rough -in all potential camera locations as
well as locations for phones, computers and any type of cable that would potentially be
needed in the building.
There was some discussion about this. John Ferris said he believed putting in the conduit now
rather than later would be much more cost effective.
There was some discussion about who had access to the squad room. Currently the cleaning
person has full access to the squad room in order to clean in the evenings. That would remain
the same.
Ann Thies asked for the officers' opinions.
Ed Belland said that they believed that it would be workable. It's not the ideal plan. He said
that the officers liked the original plan better but the current plan would work and would provide
the police department with the amenities needed. He asked if there would be water in the
garage.
Phil Zietlow said that there would be water available in the garage. He said the garage would
drain into a tank like the public works garage.
John Hamilton asked if there would be a problem with the lack of bids on construction for fall
construction and asked if it would be possible to bid the project out with both a fall and a spring
construction time to see if there was a difference in the bid price.
There was some discussion on this idea.
Jim Dillman said that he could put multiple construction dates into the time table for the bid.
Ed Belland said the officers thought that air flow could be a problem.
John Ferris said that they needed to spend enough money up front to make sure that the
heating and air conditioning systems would be done right.
Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by John Hamilton, to approve preparation of the final plans.
Motion passed unanimously.
4. Police Chief Hiring Issues
A. Contract With Other Cities
John Ferris said that, as usual, when there is a transition in a city, the idea of consolidation is
looked at. The city has received two letters concerning that issue, one from the City of
Wayzata, and the other, from the Hennepin County Sheriff.
Phil Zietlow said that the City of Wayzata suggested traditional and non-traditional mergers.
One idea mentioned in this letter was to centralize support services into one department.
John Hamilton said that just so everybody knew where he was coming from, he was 100% in
support of the current Medina police department and would not, at this time, support a merger.
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There was some discussion about other departments and possibilities for consolidation.
John Ferris said that residents current perception of the police department is very good and
that he did not see a need for merging police services at this time.
John Hamilton said that he likes the community -oriented policing that the city now has.
John Ferris said that he likes the current police department and that he does not mind paying
for the type of police service that Medina residents receive.
Ann Thies said that she also is not inclined to change police services at this time.
Phil Zietlow said that Hennepin County wanted to set up a meeting, at the sheriffs office, to
talk about their proposal.
John Ferris said a year ago he and Rick had met with the Hennepin County Sheriff and
listened to the proposal from the sheriff. At that time they also decided not to go with the
sheriffs department.
Phil Zietlow proposed that since the city is short officers right now, that maybe they try to hire
one sheriff's deputy as an officer for the City of Medina and contract with the county for 2,000
hours for one year and see how it goes. He said if the city likes it, then the next time we have
to replace an officer, we could replace him with a Hennepin County Sheriff.
Ann Thies asked how the sheriff's officers would be accountable to the city.
Phil Zietlow said that the sheriffs officers would be directly accountable to the Medina Chief -
that officer would work hand in hand with Medina and also serve in a Medina squad car.
There was some discussion about this idea.
John Hamilton said that the city could receive more coverage from the sheriffs department
than what they are currently receiving without any additional cost. He said one way the city
could do this was by putting in a substation in city hall for Hennepin County Sheriff officers to
use. He said that this was being done in the City of Corcoran. He encouraged the city get the
relationship with the sheriffs department back on track. Hamilton said he believes the sheriff
should maintain advanced services such as SWAT teams and other countywide services, but
that the city should not use them as their main police service provider.
There was some discussion about why the county wasn't currently patrolling as much as it
seemed they were patrolling in other cities. After some additional discussion it seemed that
the relationship between the two departments was the primary reason for this.
Phil Zietlow said that the key objective for the police department was to develop its relationship
with the Hennepin County Sheriff.
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B. Job Responsibilities for Interim Chief
Ed Belland prepared a memo for the city council outlining some of the areas where he needed
some council direction. The first issue was modifying the work schedule. He said that he had
modified the schedule so that officers would be on for six days and off for three days and that
they would be putting in 8 % hour days instead of 10 hour days.
Phil Zietlow asked if this would allow for Friday and Saturday to be covered by two officers.
Ed Belland said that yes, it would.
The second issue was hiring a second officer. There was some discussion about the number
of applicants that were remaining from the first pool. After some discussion it was decided to
start the process over again.
John Ferris said the police department should send out a letter to all the applicants from the
previous hiring process that were not chosen and thank them for their application.
John Hamilton asked Ed Belland if he could put together a time line for the hiring process;
when they're advertising, the adverting deadline, when interviews are expected, etc. so that
the council would have a better idea where the department was in the hiring process.
Moved by John Ferris, seconded by John Hamilton, to direct the interim chief to re -advertise
for the second officer position. Motion passed unanimously.
There was some discussion about the time line for advertising this position. Since Officer
Kroeger was still in field officer training, and since the Hamel Rodeo was coming up, the
effective time line or deadline for a response on the officer advertisement was decided to be
some time in mid August.
The next issue was whether or not the officers could use the overtime budget.
Phil Zietlow said that the police department should start using the overtime budget in order to
provide the city with adegq to coverage.
The next issue was whether or not the city council wanted the interim chief at city council
meetings. After some discussion it was decided that the interim chief, the police
commissioner, and mayor could decide whether or not the interim chief was needed at council
meetings.
Steve Tallen asked who would be authorized to sign complaints.
Phil Zietlow asked who had signed them before.
Steve Tallen said that the chief had done that before.
It was decided that Ed Belland would have the authority to sign complaints as interim chief.
The next issue was hiring the community service officers(CSO). Belland said that the
department had placed advertisements in the three local papers and received five applications
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to date. The applications are due to the police department by July 18. There was some
discussion about whether or not to hire one or two CSO(s). It was decided to wait until the
applications came in before making that decision. The council was comfortable with the
current time line for hiring the CSO(s).
Ed Belland said that he scheduled some safe and sober shifts in order to get that program
back on track.
John Hamilton asked about the MP 5 rifles and whether or not they should be taken out of the
squad cars until the city officers had instruction on those weapons. Hamilton said that having
them in the squads without proper training was a liability to the city.
After some discussion it was agreed to take the MP 5 rifles out of the squad cars until the
officers could be trained in their use and until a policy could be developed for their use.
The next issue was whether or not to increase the pay for the interim chief during the time he
was interim chief. There was some discussion on this issue. It was decided to postpone
making a decision until a bit more research could be done about the impact on the police
contract and what the past practice of the city had been.
John Hamilton asked if the city council expected the interim chief to take the chiefs squad
home and be on call.
There was some discussion about this. It was decided that the interim chief should take the
chiefs squad car home solely to transport the interim chief back and forth from home and not
for personal activities in between.
C. Process for Hiring Chief
Phil Zietlow said there are a couple of options. One is to hire a search firm or executive
consulting firm (head hunter) or to create and proceed with the hiring process using the city
council and staff.
John Hamilton passed out some information from PDI (Personnel Decisions Incorporated). He
said that their services range in price from $5,000 to $10,000 for a candidate search. He said
this was for informational purposes only.
Ron Batty said that recently they paid a search firm $10,000 to hire a secretary.
Steve Tallen said that it could range dramatically up to $25,000 for a search for a police chief.
There was some additional discussion about what type of process to use for hiring the chief.
The consensus of the city council was that whatever process they chose, they wanted to get
the best candidate possible, and they wanted to do it properly and have it done well.
John Hamilton wanted, at some time in the process, a full council interview.
There was some discussion about putting together request for proposals for executive search
firms to see what type of response the city council would get for cost.
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There was some discussion about the minimum qualifications desired for the police chief
position. No consensus was reached. There was some discussion about the process and
where they should advertise and about the current job description of the police chief. The city
council decided to invite PDI and one to two additional executive search firms to make
presentations to the city council at the upcoming city council meeting July 1, 1997 to decide
what type of services they offer.
5. Adjourn
Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by John Ferris, to adjourn the meeting at 10: 07p. m. Motion
passed unanimously.
Attesyt.� _
Paul obinson, Clerk -Treasurer
/4
John B. Ferris, Mayor
Media City Council Special Meeting Minutes
June 24,1997