City Manager Dennis, assistant city manager preview April council agendas; staff flags $25,000 ethics-officer contract

City Manager Dennis and Assistant City Manager Troy Anderson walked the council through upcoming agenda items for April 14 and April 21, calling attention to an ethics-code update that includes language edits and a separate item to renew the university-based ethics officer contract.

Assistant City Manager Troy Anderson told the council the ethics-officer contract cost is "$25,000," and staff committed to pull supporting documents and confirm the figure. Anderson also said the April 14 packet includes actuarial reports on the retirement system and a police-and-fire retirement contribution item designed to align city practice with state contribution rules.

Anderson briefed the council on a substantial cultural-arts funding packet: five organizations slated for annual support in the coming year. He also said the EPC group working on parking, a hotel and adjacent apartments will return under unfinished business with revised language from prior council discussion; staff expect related website information to go live by the Monday following the meeting.

Looking ahead to the April 21 agenda, Anderson summarized several items: consideration of a business-improvement-district, discussion of the Nomar Plaza stage and district, updates to fire station alerting and auto-dispatch contracts, and a broad transit conversation tied to a new hub and route redesign (including veterans-ride-free and funding-split discussions). He said staff will provide details on funding sources for transit items.

The council asked questions about the ethics contract and the website timeline; city staff said they would follow up with detailed backup and noted the EPC parking language changes will be returned to the council under unfinished business.