Great Bend City Council members got a behind-the-scenes look Wednesday at how the city operates on a daily basis during a tour of different departments.
“This tour in extremely important for the council members,” Interim City Administrator George Kolb said. “The council members make decisions on how the city operates, so it is important for them to know how each department functions within the city in order to make the right decisions.”
The tour will continue over the next few weeks. The first stop Wednesday was City Hall. Even though this is where they spend most of their time during council meetings, council members learned several other city employees work there daily. City Hall houses the interim city administrator, city engineer, payroll for city employees, community coordinator and human resources for city employees.
The second stop was the Municipal Court, where council members were given information how the court system works such as fines, procedures and how cases are conducted within the courtroom. They also learned how much money has been paid to the city from fines that were issued to people who broke the law. In 2017 the city received $530,000 from fines, which goes into the city’s general fund.
The third stop was the Great Bend Police Department; here they learned about the internal workings of the department and how it is structured.
“I really think it is important for the council members to take this tour of city departments,” Police Chief David Bailey said. “Here at the police department they got a firsthand look at how each division works on a daily basis. Each division commander went over the daily procedures that we do here at the police department. This way they see how we work and if we need to put in for equipment or personnel, they understand why we might need these things.”
The last stop on the tour was the Great Bend Fire Department. The council members got to see the operations of the department and the equipment it uses.