HomeMy WebLinkAboutCCP 04-02-2001 AGENDA
SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING
CITY HALL
MONDAY, APRIL 2, 2001, 5:00 P.M.
City Philosophy
To provide a basic and necessary scope of quality services
through the innovative and purposeful use of resources.
5:00 P.M. 1. Call to Order
5:00 P.M. 2. Approval of Meeting Agenda
5:00 P.M. 3. Unfinished and New Business
a. City Staff Reorganization
6:15 P.M. 4. Adjourn
The above times may vary depending on length of issue discussion
FILE
CITY OF ARDEN HILLS
MEMORANDUM
DATE: March 1, 2001
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Joseph P. Lynch, City Administrator
SUBJECT: Proposed Reorganization
Recommendation
The City Administrator recommends that the City Council authorize the restructure of the City of
Arden Hills organizational chart, and position(s), roles, responsibilities and job descriptions to
achieve:
1. Better customer service for both internal and external customers;
2. Reduce the number of direct reports to the City Administrator;
3. Create more accountability for the establishment and prioritization of workload for
support staff, as well as performance evaluation;
4. Allow management to more-effectively deal with the highest priority goals and
projects of the City.
• Background
When I was brought on board, there seemed to be a lot of questions surrounding what to do
about the morale and possibility of increasing the size of the support staff. The City had just
undergone some significant changes in a short period of time. The Community Development
Director and the Assistant to the City Administrator had just left the City. The Department
Secretary had been with the City for less than one (l)year; the Receptionist had been with the
City for less than one (1)year; there was a new Parks and Recreation Director who had been
with the City for less than one (1) year; and the Recreation Program Supervisor had been with
the City for less than one (1)year.
During the course of the interviews for the position of City Administrator, it was pointed out to
me that there would need to be some changes or something done in the way of support for
administration. I was given to understand that the previous City Administrator had been
authorized to increase the size of support staff, but had never brought back a recommendation to
do so. I have waited until this time, because I wanted to see what was in place, evaluate the
skills and abilities of current staff, discuss needs with Department Heads, look at the current
structure and function, and evaluate all of that together.
•
Memorandum, Proposed Reorganization
Page Two
March 1, 2001
I did take the opportunity to make some adjustments to some of the support staff roles and
responsibilities. Prior to my coming on board,the Department Secretary supported the Parks and
Recreation Department, including performing all of the program registrations; the Building and
Code Enforcement Department; and the Planner, including Planning Commission packet
assembly, distribution and follow up. The Administrative Secretary was responsible for
correspondence or support of the City Administrator, City Accountant,the Public Works
Director, and the City Council. The Receptionist supported the Building/Code Enforcement
Department with fill in support assistance. I rearranged some workload so that the Receptionist
took on the responsibility of performing all of the Parks and Recreation registrations, the animal
licensing and support of the Public Works Director for secretarial needs. The Department
Secretary continued to support Building Inspector and Code Enforcement, Planner and
performed correspondence and communication for the Parks and Recreation Department. The
Administrative Secretary continued to support the City Council, City Administrator and City
Accountant. I also included some physical space changes to create a more effective work
environment and work patterns.
1. Better Customer Service for Both Internal and External Customers
When I came into the City Hall for interviews, it was curious to me that there were
two (2) open desk areas that presented themselves for customer service. This seemed •
confusing. As I began, I noticed that there was a shuffling of customers from one
desk to another, depending on what they needed. In addition, when on the phone, the
Receptionist cannot begin to help customers. Additionally, because there was so
much focus on dealing with front counter assistance, telephone calls for basic
information were going to Department Heads because support staff had neither the
time nor the training to answer these basic questions. Internally, there were
complaints of being down the list of priorities for support because some staff was
trying to support up to four (4) different departments. Some staff just did their own
work because it was easier and could be done sooner.
2. Reduce the Number of Direct Reports to the City Administrator
Currently, the City Administrator has eight(8) direct reports. They include the City
Accountant, Public Works Director, Parks and Recreation Director, Planner, Building
Official, Administrative Secretary, Department Secretary and Receptionist. The City
Administrator also has thirteen(13) indirect reports, totaling twenty-one (21) City
employees. This presents a diffuse and difficult environment in having to provide
workload prioritization and distribution to everyone from the Receptionist to the
Accountant.
a
Memorandum, Proposed Reorganization
Page Three
March 1, 2001
3. Create More Accountability for the Establishment and Prioritization of
Workload for Support Staff, as Well as Performance Evaluation
Along with the workload distribution and prioritization comes the evaluation of
performance. This has been somewhat difficult to do, given the fact that I cannot
spend an equal amount of time with eight(8) different people in eight(8) different
positions. I have asked for and received support and assistance in the way of
feedback from some Department Heads for support staff evaluation, and have tried to
physically observe and base performance evaluations for Department Heads on more
direct contact.
4. Allow Management to More Effectively Deal with the Highest Priority Goals and
Projects of the City
With so many direct reports, and in trying to determine the workload distribution for
support staff,the City Administrator has not had time to work on items that were
identified in the 2000 Council Retreat or any of the items that have come up and been
added since that time. Also,there have been internal priorities, such as development
and adoption of a new personnel policy that the Administrator has not had enough
time to get to!
Proposal
• The creation of two (2) new titles, one called Administrative Services Director; and the
other called Community Services Director. This would reduce the number of direct reports
to the City Administrator to two (2). The Administrative Services Director would oversee
the Finance, Planning and Zoning, Building Inspections and Code Enforcement, and
Community Development Departments. The Community Services Director would oversee
Parks, Recreation, Maintenance and Utilities Departments.
■ Rename the Administrative Secretary position to Deputy Clerk. Essentially,this position is
performing all of the statutory duties as delegated by the City Clerk.
■ Create the position of Customer Service Representative II. 1 would take the current part-
time Utility Billing Clerk position(recently vacated by Celine Syfko's resignation), and
create this position thereby making it a full-time staff position. This would be the position
that would sit out at the front counter with the Customer Service Representative I and would
handle any and all transactions for the City.
■ Rename the Receptionist position to Customer Service Representative I. This would more
closely describe what the position should be about, and its function.
■ Rename the Department Secretary to Office Support Specialist. I would like to hire these
two (2) positions immediately. One would be to replace the position formerly held by Susan
• Holmes, and the other would be the addition of one (1) support staff position.
L ; .
Memorandum, Proposed Reorganization
Page Four
March 1, 2001
■ Rename the Public Works Foreman position to Community Services Foreman.
Without attrition, this adds 1.5 FTE's (full-time equivalents)to the Administrative staff. With
attrition, it adds .5 FTE positions. The additional staff, without attrition, is the Office Support
Specialist and the addition of a half time to the Customer Service Representative II. With
attrition, if either the Public Works or Parks and Recreation Director chose to leave the City, it is
an addition of one-half FTE, which is the upgrade of the (Customer Service Representative II
(former Utility Billing Clerk)to full-time.
Impacts
At this point,the full financial impact to the City is not known. We will have to do a complete
review of the job descriptions for all positions that would be created and/or renamed; and a pay
equity compliance check would need to be done. We need to report to the Department of
Employee Relations (DOER) in 2002 and we need to be in compliance at that time with our pay
equity/comparable worth plan. We would also need to go through the State job match to
determine if any of the position points should be revised, which will have an impact on their
wage scale. Without attrition,the number of employees if 1.5 FTE more. At a support staff
wage level and a .5 FTE increase to the former Utility Billing position, an approximate cost for
these changes is $55,000.
There is a potential for having people currently in positions ending up in a position where they •
would be supervised when they are now currently direct reporting to the City Administrator.
This would add a layer of management, but I don't believe it adds more bureaucracy. I don't
believe that the external customers will be impacted by these changes. In fact, I believe that the
customer service to external customers will be better than it is today. We will be able to give
direct attention to any applicant for a recreation class, building permit, license and take them
completely through that process in a"one stop shop" scenario.
Implementation
I would like to begin implementing this program with the hire of the two (2) Office Support
Specialist positions. One is to replace the Department Secretary position, and the other is an
additional support staff position. Also, I would further carry this implementation out with the
hiring of the Customer Service Representative II position to replace the position formerly held by
Ms. Syfko. Again, this is an upgrade in the position from a part-time to full-time position. This
is one that I think we need now, and would help us transition to the new City Hall, for customer
service purposes.
Over the course of the next three months, I would review the job qualifications, descriptions, pay
scale and comparable worth points for the Administrative Services Director and the Community
Services Director, as well as the renamed positions. I would bring that back to you for your
approval before I would like to begin that hiring process. Those positions would be posted both
internally and externally, and a full hiring process would take place. •
1 i
Memorandum, Proposed Reorganization
Page Five
March 1, 2001
With regard to the Customer Services Representative I position, it would simply be a matter of
reviewing the current job description of the Receptionist, and modifying it to take into account
some of the changes that would be planned for the position going forward. Again, a review
would have to be done of the comparable worth points, and pay scale. The same would need to
happen with the Deputy Clerk position.
Recommendation
The City Council is asked to authorize the City Administrator to begin the process of creating the
reorganized structure of the administrative staff as proposed; authorization to hire the Office
Support Specialist positions, after the completion of a full hiring process; authorize the City
Administrator to hire a Customer Service Representative II position, making the changeover
from Utility Billing Clerk; to begin the review, renaming and revised job titles and duties for the
Receptionist and Administrative Secretary; including the complete review of the comparable
worth/pay equity scale,job description and complete hiring process.
Further,the City Council is asked to authorize the City Administrative to begin the review of the
proposed Administrative Services Director and Community Services Director positions,
including complete job descriptions, comparable worth points, pay scale, and return to the City
Council for review and approval.
I believe this is the right thing to do, at the right time. It accomplishes four things. They are:
■ Reduces the number of direct reports to the City Administrator;
■ Provides additional support for both internal and external customers;
■ Provides a method for direct accountability for support staff and work establishment
prioritization and performance evaluation; and
■ Allows the City Administrator and management to work on the highest priority issues
for the City and City Council.
By reducing the number of direct reports,the City Administrator is thereby freed up to
concentrate on"bigger picture" issues, and has less to worry about on the daily, weekly and
monthly work assignments. Also,this creates a more fair and direct accountability system for
work prioritization and performance evaluation by those closest to the situation.
By adding more support, I believe I'm directly plugging into the desire previously expressed at
my interview and continually being expressed by the City Council to find a way to provide
support for department and line staff people to accomplish the day-to-day, as well as the longer-
term work. It has the added benefit of bolstering support staff so we can provide more direct
customer service, and create a system whereby a customer can complete their process,whether
that's registration, building permit,planning and zoning application, or a simple license, in one
location at one time.
e
c, s
Memorandum, Proposed Reorganization
Page Six
March 1, 2001
As previously mentioned, by having a more centralized management system, the oversight
provided by the Administrative Services Director and the Community Services Director, in
conjunction with the Deputy Clerk for support staff, puts the ability of those most closely
affected by support staff needs in control of plugging into the determination of the workload
establishment and prioritization. Also, by moving the direct accountability to these positions for
support staff, I believe it allows for a better system of work performance evaluation.
By creating a management team consisting of three (3) individuals, I believe the City
Administrator and the two (2) Director positions will be able to meet, discuss and plan for some
of the "big picture" issues that the City might be facing in the next five (5) to twenty (20) years.
Today, we have a Planner and the Building Official sitting in on Department Head meetings,
which is not all bad, but gets into some of the minutiae, rather than contemplating"what if'
scenarios, and"how are we going to handle things in the future."
cc: Jim Via Brime er Facsimile 652-945-0102
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