All right, we will call the meeting to order.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Roll call, please.

Let's see.

Um Matthew E.

Here.

Jim Simon.

Here.

Here.

Aaron Bell.

Here.

Councilmember Jason Guppy is absent, and so is Mayor Meese.

Move to excuse Councilmember Guffy and Mayor Meese.

Second.

Motion and second on the table.

Any discussion?

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Motion carries.

All right, moving on to our discussion agenda.

First up, we're going to discuss code enforcement concerns and current staffing.

Good afternoon, Deputy Mayor and Council.

So tonight's discussion agenda can uh be as short or as long as the council has thoughts and opinions on these on these matters.

So this one was uh added to the list of potential uh council topics several months back to discuss and it's a pertinent timing with uh one of our code enforcement officers now serving for the remainder of the year as a county commission member.

So uh as a matter of background, we have two code enforcement officers authorized in the city at this time, and so with uh Finn's move to being uh acting county commissioner, uh that's a 50% reduction uh right there in what uh they're they're able to do.

And that position is being held um twofold.

One uh by law, uh there is a law in Montana that if you are appointed to a government position that uh as a local government we're required to hold your job for a hundred and eighty days, um, and then you can be reinstated to that position.

Um Mr.

Uh Finn's time is four days longer than a hundred and eighty days technically, uh, but obviously I I authorize an extension uh for those four days so that he'd be able to return and and also get that experience as a county commission member, and I think that will serve Belgrade well when he returns on that front having another um employee exposed to exposed to that.

With it comes though the fact that uh there's a reduction uh in 50 percent of our ability to uh uh in that in that department.

The other um concern is just uh natural turnover in that department.

There's a potential for even um the the other employee has been making notifications of looking for other advancements in the future, as they've been in this position for a while, and code enforcement tends to be a stepping stone in the general municipal world towards uh towards other things, and so if that employee wishes to do that, we wish them all the best and uh support him in in those efforts.

Um so what is code enforcement do?

Primarily they have basically three functions.

So we have the code enforcement portion of it, sometimes referred to neighbor neighborhood services, and that is where in our code as a city, the city law, we have listed a wide range of things that uh are enforceable from weed ordinances to structure performance, you know, of if a structure is needing to be repaired or found to be substandard code enforcement can assist with that.

They also in the summertime working on the weed enforcement and and uh that that program in the winter time they help ensure the enforcement of things like the snow plowing ordinance for plowing your sidewalks and ensuring that that is that is taken care of.

There are other fun, and these are very high level.

Their other function is animal control uh within the city of Belgrade.

That assignment has been has been made to them, and that probably takes up, and and we're I did warn the chief in advance who oversees code enforcement, you might have questions for him, and he was extremely excited to be able to answer any of them tonight.

So we can throw them his way.

But animal control takes up a significant portion of the that code enforcement officer's time is when there is an animal and control issue that involves.

We have that partnership with Heart of the Valley, and so if there is a transport need or a working with them need that that obviously takes them a considerable amount of time to do it.

Whether that's education through warnings and conversations to citations for those that uh might need a little bit stronger of a reminder on that front.

Those are their three primary roles that they serve.

Some of that can be divvied up with the reduction in in staff, but it will obviously take time away from that.

So animal control, for example, a discussion with our police chief, and as necessary, our uniformed police officers will be able to assist in that particular area.

And if we have egregious needs, there's still the ability through for our uniformed officers to issue citations with our general code enforcement ordinances that are on that front.

However, it's not their primary responsibility, and frankly, our uniformed officers are busy doing other things, and so that will be a uh a last case from a service delivery model.

Um the other department that uh can potentially assist with this, however, they are very busy as well as our building inspection teams of they're very they're out and about in uh doing inspections within the community and with new construction and also our uh with the fire marshal program that we we've got going on of identifying those particular areas.

Um they have the ability to uh in our code we can authorize them to write citations for those things as well.

However, it's not in their primary duty set, and we would need to likely have some conversations with the Teamsters uh union on that as well, as are uh most of the individuals in the building inspection department and our code enforcement are represented by the Teamsters.

So we would need to ensure that the union is aware of what we would like to do and get some feedback from them before moving forward with that is and seeing where we go.

Um so tonight I I really wanted to one kind of give that high level of what is code enforcement do.

Bring up to the council that there is a 50% right out of the gate reduction and our ability to have level of service through the remainder of the calendar year, and some ideas that we have on that front.

Um primarily uh in discussion with HR and looking at the financial situation.

We're not recommending a short-term worker or a backfill uh during this uh particular period of time, mostly because the training required to bring somebody up to being able to cut them loose to do this job.

We finished training about the time that they would be uh done with that uh short-term period of time.

So on the table and in no particular order of of ideas, the the primary one is been what I have received from council over the past couple of years is continuing to want to find ways to make specifically parking enforcement more efficient.

What can we do on that front?