The Brainerd City Council will meet for a retreat in February to discuss the city's challenges and to develop goals and objectives to meet those challenges.
The council Monday night set the retreat for 12:30 p.m. Feb. 11 at a site to be determined.
The council has met in a retreat setting for several years, City Administrator Jim Thoreen said, and he estimated the February retreat could last 4-5 hours.
Some agenda items Thoreen proposed included addressing the city's current budget process, discussing the 5-year capital improvement plan process and setting specific goals for the management of city departments, in order to improve customer service and efficiency. Thoreen suggested bringing in an outside facilitator to run the retreat.
"I think that's all doable in a 4-hour timeframe," Thoreen said. "It's a lot of work."
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In other business, the council authorized a conditional job offer to Shawn Strong for the position of information technology/geographic information systems coordinator. Strong is the city's current GIS/IT coordinator and has worked with the city's IT system for nearly 10 years, human resources coordinator Kris Schubert said.
The new IT/GIS coordinator position is a supervisory position and replaces the GIS/IT coordinator position Strong previously held. Strong's starting pay for the position is $6,051 per month, which is step D or 100 percent of the base wage for the position, Schubert said.
In other business, Mayor Ed Menk notified the council he's determined some recommendations for council member liaisons to city committees. Before the Jan. 17 meeting, he'll verify those recommendations are OK, he said, and he'll have a list of recommendations prepared. As he won't be able to attend the Jan. 17, he asked the council to act on his recommendations at that time.
"And with that, I would say, we're going to be having a great year," Menk said.
