A Public Works Department employee said the City of Auburn relies on a small, around-the-clock crew to keep downtown clean and restore public spaces after events.

"So as the city of Auburn grows and changes, we wanna make sure that 1 of the common threads that stays the same is the way that we care for this city and the way that we maintain it," the employee said. "We've got thousands of visitors that come to this city every day...and it gives them that sense of arrival that they've come to a special place."

The employee described the staffing pattern and the workload after events such as football games and parades, saying crews typically begin work "in between 3 or 4 in the morning" and that it can take "sometimes 3, 4, depending on how many people we're down here, or 5 hours to get everything back in order." The employee also said the department has "2 dedicated employees that are downtown 5 days a week, sometimes 6 and 7 days a week."

The remarks emphasized that public comments and compliments from visitors underscore the department's role in maintaining the city's appearance: "I've had people that come from schools, far away, and they would tell us how nice everything looks and how good of a job we do," the employee said.

The remarks were discussion of operational staffing and workload; no formal action or vote was recorded on these points in the provided transcript.