HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-06-21 Meeting Minutes
HERO TRAINING CENTER MEETING MINUTES 6/21/2022
FACILITY OPERATIONS COMMITTEE
10125 85TH STREET SOUTH
COTTAGE GROVE, MINNESOTA 55016
REGULAR MEETING – 2:00 P.M. (In-person)
1. CALL TO ORDER
Called to order by Committee chair Lee Vague at 1403 hours
2. ROLL CALL
Committee members present: Clint Gridley (Woodbury), Pete Koerner (Cottage Grove), Lee Vague
(Woodbury), Angela Gorall (Woodbury)
Others present: Dan Anselment (HERO Manager), Greg Rinzel (Cottage Grove) and Bri
Zeterlu (HERO Admin Training Coordinator)
3. PRESENTATIONS
4. CONSENT AGENDA
A. HERO FOC Meeting Minutes – April 19, 2022
Staff Recommendation: Approve the Meeting Minutes from April 19, 2022, regular meeting
Motion to approve HERO FOC Meeting Minutes April 19, 2022, Motion by Gridley, 2nd by
Koerner. Motion carried 4-0.
B. HERO Financial Statements
Recommendation: Receive Information
Motion to approve HERO Financial Statements, Motion by Gridley, 2nd by Koerner. Motion
carried 4-0.
C. HERO 2023 FEE Schedule Increase
Recommendation: Approve the proposed 2023 fee schedule increases, fees effective 1/1/2023.
-Gridley inquired about the $0.50 increments on the civilian side and advised that is should
be increasing by $1.00 for public range lane rentals due to rising inflation costs.
-Anselment stated that HERO is still trying to gain public customers and did not want to
deter them with too much of an increase.
-Gridley advised that inflation is up nearly 8% and that increasing HERO by the $0.50 would
only be a 1.7% increase.
-Gorall asked if other ranges were increasing their prices.
-Anselment stated he has communicated with other city owned ranges and they were
making minor adjustments to certain rates only.
-Gridley stated that he wished to reduce potential liability for the two partner cities to have
to pay in at the end of the year and increasing the fees could assist in reducing this.
-Vague advised that this is only a one-year commitment and that we can reassess rates after
the 2023 year.
Motion to approve HERO 2023 FEE Schedule Increase, Motion by Gridley, 2nd by Koerner.
Motion carried 4-0.
D. HERO 2023 Emergency Fence Consortium
Recommendation: Accept the proposal to pay annually for emergency fencing at HERO.
-Gorall asked if they would need to pay the $5,000.00 per year even if the fence was not
utilized?
-Rinzel advised that they had put in a request through legislation for funding to try and
reduce the cost to the cities for the annual fence. The fence is a temporary emergency fence
that is guaranteed to be established within 24-hours of need during civilian unrest. This
would be an annual contract.
Motion to approve HERO 2023 Emergency Fence Consortium, Motion by Gridley, 2nd by
Koerner. Motion carried 4-0.
5. APPROVE DISBURSEMENTS
A. Approve payments from 4/14/2022 to 6/16/2022 in the amount of $41,373.73.
-Gorall asked if Kraft or other HERO facility equipment was still under warranty?
-Anselment stated that some of the items were under warranty for more than one year but
other items are not warrantied items at this point. Anselment also noted one incident in
which maintenance staff called in Kraft after-hours to repair an item that we later learned
would have been under warranty.
Motion to approve the payments, Motion by Gorall, 2nd by Koerner. Motion carried 4-0.
6. REGULAR AGENDA
A. HERO 12-Lane Range Repairs (Non-budgeted Repair Item)
Recommendation: Discuss approving the repairs to the HERO 12-lane range.
-Vague asked who “owns” this issue of repairs? Was this a Meggitt spec or did HERO change
the spec or was there something else that occurred?
-Anselment stated that Leo A Daily/Cottage Grove/Woodbury project team “prescribed”
what was in the Meggitt spec. with the addition of the Troy acoustics.
-Vague stated that HERO chose Troy acoustics for aesthetics as well has hearing
conservation for officers.
-Anselment advised that the only other range like HERO with Troy acoustics, was the St.
Paul range. However, the St. Paul range has stationary targets which makes a difference in
damage because their targets are at the range trap. Anselment also stated that the
public shooters cause the most damage to the range due to them shooting from the booths.
Covid also had an impact with more Law Enforcement shooting from the booth than normal
to adhere to company distancing regulations.
-Gridley clarified that the Meggitt specs provided were modified by a combination of HERO,
Cottage Grove, Woodbury. Leo A Daily and the construction manager.
-Anselment confirmed that this is a modified spec. according to his conversations with all
involved in the project.
-Rinzel emphasized that the extra layer of acoustics were added for hearing preservation and
that the cost of a hearing loss claim is extremely high.
-Gridley inquired if there would be changes to the ceiling panels every few years or is there
something more specific planned?
-Anselment advised that that side panels would inevitably have to be replaced. As for the
ceiling baffles, they could be reduced in size by cutting off the leading edge which should
reduce the damage and solve 90% of the issue.
-Gorall inquired about restricting lane use for the ones that cause the most damage?
-Anselment stated that this was already occurring and that lanes 1 and 12 are restricted
from the public use when possible.
Motion to approve the 12-lane repair, Motion by Gridley, 2nd by Gorall. Motion carried 4-0.
B. HERO 2023 Budget Proposals 1, 2, & 3
Recommendation: Discuss both budget proposals and approve a budget scenario.
-Gridley stated that the position is warranted however, it should not be a “lead” position
because the person should have to be in charge of others to hold such a title. Gridley
advised that Woodbury found a big difference when advertising for a position when they
advertised specific vs general and encouraged HERO to be specific about the position being
for the HERO Center.
-Anselment advised that “lead worker” was a title specific to a certain pay scale already set
with the City of Cottage Grove public service workers. Anselment also mentioned that there
was already a talented pool of internal candidates within the city that know how to fix the
specialty equipment at the HERO Center as well as work on boilers, the range systems,
mechanical and weld. Anselment was hoping to make this position “desirable” to the
internal candidates who might want to work at the HERO center specifically.
-Gridley stated that if HERO removes an internal person from the Cottage Grove labor force,
then Cottage Grove will have to hire a new person and the city might not be very favorable
to that.
-Anselment advised that the City of Cottage Grove has had a number of internal candidates
move from one department to another with the full support of city administration and
managers in the past.
-Rinzel stated that if this internal person does not obtain a spot with HERO, what if they take
their special skills to an outside location?
-Gridley then reiterated that a “Lead” position should be leading others and that the pay
appears too high.
-Rinzel advised that the Woodbury and Cottage Grove pay scales are different and that
Woodbury’s pay scale starts out higher for this type of position.
-Anselment further clarified the differences in pay scales and presented the current pay scale
for the City of Cottage Grove for the different positions in the city public service workers
titles. As a result of this discussion, the group realized the differences in pay scales between
both cities and recognized that the proposed pay scale under budget scenario 2 for a “lead
worker” was not too high and was appropriate.
-Gorall stated that you would want someone with a minimum of two years’ experience but
more likely a range of 3-5 years’ experience.
-Gridley advised that the City of Woodbury has a distinction between a public service worker
and a facility maintenance worker, and they are not put in the same category as presented
in cottage grove pay scale. Woodbury recently hired a maintenance technician that was non-
union. Gridley confirmed that the position was needed for HERO.
-Gridley inquired if a different position, specific to the HERO center, could be created and the
job description could fit what is needed at the HERO center versus using the public service
worker (PSW) pay scale and PSW description given the difference between the two roles.
-Vague confirmed that the tactical questions concerning the position were still ambiguous.
-Gridley advised to approve the budget for the new position but, leave the specific questions
such as title name, job description and advertising for a later meeting. Gridley offered for
HERO to use the Woodbury job description for maintenance worker if necessary and even
inquired about hiring the position through the City of Woodbury if necessary and then have
the individual designated to the HERO center.
-Anselment asked if budget scenario 2 with the lead worker or budget scenario 3 with the
non-lead worker was being approved.
-Gridley confirmed that budget scenario 2 with a lead worker position was necessary.
-Gorall then inquired about the 4% administrative fee and where was it in the budget prior
to this?
-Anselment stated that in the previous years, the City of Cottage Grove did not charge the
administrative fees as outlined in the Business plan and only charged for the facility
maintenance worker fees. Anselment stated that with the increasing costs for maintenance
and the use of Cottage Grove finance, administration, and HR to handle the day-to-day of
HERO center it was necessary to start capturing the fees to help offset the financial burden
and impact to the City of Cottage Grove’s staff hours for the HERO center.
-Gorall inquired about the potential partner agency revenue contributions for 2023 in the
budget proposal. Anselment stated he was estimating a potential if the revenues do not
offset expenses in 2023 both cities should budget for possibly contributing to offset the
difference at the agency partner rate. This was a “worse case scenario” estimate given the
unknown with the rising costs to utilities and maintenance/repairs which have already
increased significantly more than expected for 2022. The estimate was for a contribution of
potentially $100,000 split by the cities based on the agency partner rate as outline in the
business plan.
Motion to approve scenario 2 for the HERO 2023 budget proposal, Motion Koerner, 2nd
Gridley. Motion carried 4-0.
C. HERO Center Full-time Maintenance Worker Position
Recommendation: Discuss and approve the hiring of a full-time maintenance worker.
-Was discussed as part of the budget proposal under agenda item 6B and requested to table
agenda item 6C for another meeting after Anselment has a chance to speak with HR
regarding the position and whether this position can be created specifically for the HERO
center or if it will need to get union approval to proceed if handled by the City of Cottage
Grove.
7. ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn by Chair Vague at 1501 hours by Koerner, 2nd by Vague. Motion
carried 4 to 0.