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The five city council members in North Branch discussed their shared readiness to move forward last week on resolving city hall work environment issues.  But, two members, Peter Schaps and newly elected Jeff Goulet, differed from the other three on the best way to go about this.  

On a motion to advertise to fill a new budgeted position of  Human Resources Generalist, the vote was 3-2.  In stating his opposition, Council member Schaps continued suggesting an outside HR consulting firm be considered and expressed concerns about growing city government.  Goulet did not speak to the motion but also voted no.     

Council member Travis Miles works in HR professionally and explained that while there are certainly positives to hiring a contract person through a firm, he has seen over the years the total expenses usually end up costing as much as a fulltime employee. The idea behind having HR at city hall is to seamlessly utilize expertise and benefit from immediate access to resources. North Branch has multiple union contracts and an HR professional would have helped with a couple of issues in recent years. Miles mentioned the city’s relatively ad libbed response to Juneteenth and sick and safe time laws the state legislature imposed abruptly.

Mayor Kevin Scheiber added he sees the need for an HR person and anticipates plusses from monitoring employee performance and bringing more structure to the hierarchy at city hall.  Recently if North Branch would have had the advice of an HR expert the city could have saved some money, he felt.

Council member Schaps responded he is only saying “it would be worth our time” to seek consultants for HR services proposals. 

In other business, the council unanimously agreed to list the old ambulance garage for sale. The property is to the west side of the old water and light brick offices (38791 Forest Blvd.)  The preliminary value is $365,000.  North Branch has been using it for equipment storage.

~ The council accepted a police officer's resignation.

~An application for the Ragnar Fundraiser Run to come through town August 8 was approved. The event goes from the cities, through Forest Lake to Duluth at its end.  Teams this year will stay overnight at Pine County Fairgrounds.

~Police Chief Dan Meyer was on hand to see the council accept the first body worn camera audit for the videotaping technology that North Branch activated in 2022.  State law requires audit of each department’s policies and implementation every two years.  

The report from the firm Rampart LLC concluded the North Branch body worn cameras are being used in compliance with rules.  There was a recommendation-only that the Motorola V300 system technology be enhanced  for thermal image and night vision capabilities.

~ A public works committee was assigned Council members Schaps and Goulet as liaisons.  A Liquor Advisory committee will include Council members Miles and Goulet.  The newly named Public Safety Committee, which used to be “fire” only now includes Council members Canada and Miles.  A finance advisory committee has Schaps and Goulet assigned for council liaisons.

~ Council directed staff to distribute Requests for Proposals for city attorney services, as it has been several years with Flaherty and Hood as city legal counsel.   Engineering will stay with WSB while a couple of studies on city water treatment operations and the transportation plan are in process.  Public Works Director Shawn Williams advised that this year is not a good time to do RFPs for engineering.  “I’d like to finish up the stuff we’ve got going first,” he explained.

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