HomeMy WebLinkAbout15.F.2. City Employees Involvement-Community Playground Build
/0: F. 2,.
CITY OF SHAKOPEE
Memorandum
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Mark McNeill, City Administrator
SUBJECT: City Employee Involvement - Community Playground Build
DATE: September 16, 2005
INTRODUCTION:
The Council is asked to authorize City employees the option to assist with the
Community Playground build, to be held October 5th - 9th. The approval would be for
them to use City time.
BACKGROUND:
Volunteers are being sought to do work on the Community Playground, which will be
constructed at Huber Park the second weekend of October. Many volunteers have
already been found; it is expected that the majority of them will be there on Saturday and
Sunday, October 8th and 9th. .
It is very important that preparatory work be done on the first three days, so that the
project can proceed in earnest on the weekends. Several local companies have
volunteered to send crews. We are aware that Toro, Seagate, the Minnesota Vikings,
Canterbury Park, Rahr Malting, and Valleyfair have all committed to come or are
contemplating sending employee groups to work on the Community Playground.
What is being asked of Council is to authorize City employees to volunteer to assist,
either for a four~or eight hour shift on one ofthe weekdays. The request is to authorize
them to do this on City time, rather than have them take personal time to do that. We feel
that it would be a good team building opportunity, and would allow more opportunity for
employees to participate.
One concern is Work Compo Because employees would be paid by the City to do this
work, ifthere is an injury, potentially there could be a claim for Work Comp insurance.
However, we feel that the overall risk is worth the opportunity to participate.
If the Council authorizes, this would allow only those employees who are approved by
their department heads. For example, this time of year is extremely busy for building
inspectors and engineering technicians; they would likely not be able to participate. In
addition, no overtime would be paid for participation, and employees would not be
authorized to switch shifts to participate unless approved by their supervisor (mostly
affects police officers).
RECOMMENDATION:
I recommend that the Council authorize the seeking of City employees to volunteer to
participate, for up to 8 hours.
ACTION REQUIRED:
Ifthe Council concurs, it should, by motion, direct that City employees be authorized to
participate in the Community Playground build, with the restrictions discussed above.
~Y'vk~
Mark McNeill
City Administrator
MM:th
I