Council approved the hiring of two new police officers that will be for the replacement of two sergeants that will be retiring this spring, Sgt. Drummond and Sgt. Breznak. This will give time for the police department to certify a new civil service test used to hire police officers, have them get all the necessary approvals and begin their training prior to the retirement dates. This will also lead to the promotion of two current officers to sergeants. The number of applicants that the City has seen for police officers has dwindled significantly in the past 20 years. Where there used to be hundreds of applicants taking the exam, this most recent exam had 50 apply to take the exam, roughly 30 complete the exam, and only 14 eligible for consideration after other qualifications are verified. Approval now, as the test has just been administered, will also allow the police to move quickly to make an offer to the top candidates as often those candidates will also be receiving offers from other agencies as well. I congratulate the upcoming retirees for a job well done and look forward to welcoming new officers to our ranks.
Council also approved two pieces of legislation that related to pay of our non-union employees in the City. The first piece was to codify the payroll ordinances with updates related to all classes of employees (full time, part-time, and seasonal), along with also updating the pay scale for the city job classification and updating such classifications for a few levels of employees. The second piece included payrate adjustments for many of the non-union employees related to the updated job class and payrates passed by the first piece of the legislation. Both pieces of legislation had extensive discussions between me, Mr. McIntire, and the administration as there were some changes to how the current process works along with understanding the financial impact of wage increases. I proposed an amendment to both pieces of legislation which served to include the permanent part-time and seasonal employees all under the newly created code section, included the pay ranges and job classifications for all the roles covered, and updated the new pay rates for employees getting adjustments related to the new pay ranges/classifications. The administration, including the Mayor and Chief of Staff, both supported my proposed changes to the legislation.
Council also approved a contract for a two-year program for youth substance abuse counseling through our police youth diversion services division. This contract will be primarily from settlement funds the City has received from class action lawsuit settlements related to opioids. The funds that the city receives do have restrictions on how they can be used, and this type of program meets those requirements. The City is also set to receive additional funds from another settlement that has not been finalized. The City will use the data from this two-year program to see if it is successful and something that we could pursue additional grant funding to continue if it is.
Finally, Council referred legislation for the Commission on Inclusion to review as it related to the purchase of an ADA compliant kayak launch for Heritage Lake. Council has been vocal in the last few years about ensuring that we are using our board and commissions appropriately to get their input on items that fall under their purview. This upgrade was something that the Parks and Recreation Board supported in their review of the 2022 budgeted improvements, but it had not been reviewed and discussed by our Commission on Inclusion yet. I supported referring this to them for their input so they can bring up any issues or concerns they could see with the project before it moves forward.
The next Council meeting will be on Thursday October 12th with committee meetings starting at 5:30 PM and Council to follow.