City Council 8-21-18

Notice of Cancellation

STAFF REPORTS – AUGUST 2018

RDA Board 8-21-18

Notice of Cancellation

City Council 8-7-18

Agenda, Minutes, Audio, Video

• The Fire Chief gave a brief report to the council which included announcing a new fire Captain, Nate Tracy, who was promoted from within the department.
• The council approved (4-1) an ordinance establishing food truck regulations in the Riverdale Municipal Code.  I did request one amendment to the new regulations in a motion to approve, which was to strike the time restrictions that controlled what time of day they could be open.  I did not feel like this was fair to single out a sector of licensed businesses like that when we allow others to be open 24-7.  The market should control their hours of operation sufficiently.
• The council approved (4-1) a resolution amending HR policies for compensatory time which allows police field training officers to receive an hour of comp time for each shift spent actively training new hires.  I will note here that I did vote against this resolution for a handful of reasons which I believe were simple but logical: (Discussion begins at 22:44 on the video recording)
  • 1 –  The information we were provided in the packet gave ZERO information about why staff wanted to make this change.  So in the meeting we are given a brief explanation from which we must immediately conjure up relevant questions and make a judgment all within a few moments.  This is unprofessional preparation by staff and unfair to the council.
  • 2 –  I do not accept “other cities do it” as a valid reason for doing anything.  Ever.
  • 3 –  Staff would not be doing any new duties that they have not previously been doing, or working for any extra time.  They are just adding a perk.
  • 4 –  This change will only benefit a group of staff in one department.  I don’t think that is fair to other city employees.  All departments have established employees who show new employees the ropes.  
  • 5 –  I believe using the system of becoming a “Field Training Officer” and helping to train new hires as a promotional requirement makes a lot more sense.  It helps officers become more well rounded and get supervisory experience.  And the motivation to participate is built in.
• The council approved a resolution amending the online PTIF account management.

LOOKING AHEAD:  There will be City Council meetings on 9-4-18 and 9-18-18.  The RDA Board will meet on 9-18-18.  Subscribe to Riverdale City’s Youtube channel.

REMINDER: These monthly reports are only a brief summary (from my point of view) of our public meetings; you can find more detailed, and official city information at riverdalecity.com.  These posts are also updated throughout the month as meetings take place and new information and related links become available.

PLEASE:  Don’t hesitate to contact me directly at any time with any thoughts, ideas, complaints, questions, insults or compliments.

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