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9/12/2008 Page 2 -- The Superintendent is focused on planning, organizing, scheduling and assigning work to enable the crew to operate efficiently and effectively Cons --The Superintendent is limited in doing maintenance work --The Superintendent is onjob sites less than a working foreman Option B Pros: --The Working Foreman can assist with the work of the crew -- The Working Foremen can be on the work site more with the crew Cons: --A working foreman is not separated from the union, so does not have authority regarding personnel issues --A working foreman is pulled between organizing work and doing work. This can create tension, and can reduce the productivity of the crew if too much time is spent doing vs. organizing work. --A working foreman is generally focused on one or two aspects of maintenance operations, i.e. water, or water and sewer, which does not facilitate priority setting among the multiple maintenance operations, i.e. streets, parks, water, sewer, storm sewer, fleet maintenance. -- With a crew of 8, (with an additional 7 seasonal workers during the busiest portion of the year) and multiple maintenance activities, a single working foreman could not plan, schedule, and organize the work of the crew and still operate as a working foreman. Either the "working" element would suffer, or the "foreman" element would.suffer. --multiple working foremen would be needed to manage the Public Works maintenance operation. Looking ahead to the development of TCAAP, the scope of maintenance operations will increase substantially, as well as the size of the crew, making it more difficult to manage the crew with one or more working foremen. -- With two or more working foremen, the amount of time spent organizing work vs. doing work becomes equivalent to a full-time maintenance position, resulting in a de facto loss of a maintenance position, although there are "working" foremen. --Having multiple working foremen reduces or eliminates the opportunity for maintenance workers to serve as project leaders at work sites --Assigning multiple working foremen to oversee specific operational areas can erode the philosophy of a cohesive group of cross-trained maintenance workers, as the working foremen will be focused on their specific operational areas, and will tend to surround themselves with crew members who have the same focus. -- working foremen focused on one or two operational areas will have a more difficult time coordinating among themselves in terms of priority setting regarding the needs of the various operational areas. Recommendation On the basis of the above analysis, it is recommended that the Public Works maintenance operation be managed by a Public Works Superintendent.