Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, January 09, 2018
Discussion
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER PROPOSED FINANCE DEPARTMENT REORGANIZATION, INCLUDING RESOLUTION NO. 18-004, A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CARSON, CALIFORNIA, AMENDING THE CLASSIFICATION PLAN, RESOLUTION NO 77-111, BY ADOPTING THE REVISED AND/OR NEW JOB CLASSIFICATIONS FOR CENTRAL SERVICES TECHNICIAN AND SENIOR CENTRAL SERVICES TECHNICIAN (CITY COUNCIL)
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I. SUMMARY
Recent retirements and a resignation within the Finance Department have provided an opportunity to update outdated job classifications, and re-balance a portion of the workload in the Finance Department.
Staff requests the City Council approve 2 new job classifications; as well as staffing changes that will not change the total full-time employee headcount. The proposed changes are expected to result in an additional net annual cost of $19,143. Future improvement to efficiency, leading to a rebalanced workload, is expected to mitigate the additional cost over the next two years.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
1. WAIVE further reading and ADOPT Resolution No. 18-004, A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CARSON, CALIFORNIA, AMENDING THE CLASSIFICATION PLAN, RESOLUTION NO 77-111, BY ADOPTING THE REVISED AND/OR NEW JOB CLASSIFICATIONS FOR CENTRAL SERVICES TECHNICIAN AND SENIOR CENTRAL SERVICES TECHNICIAN (Exhibit A)
2. APPROVE the addition of one full-time Payroll Specialist position to the list of funded positions in the budget.
1.
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III. ALTERNATIVES
PROVIDE alternative direction to staff for next steps to fill vacancies in the Finance Department.
IV. BACKGROUND
Over the last several years, most every City department has made recommendations for staff reorganization. Initially, recommendations were vetted by the Budget Ad-Hoc Subcommittee of the City Council before presentation to the entire City Council. Recently, the Budget Ad-Hoc Subcommittee of the City Council was terminated.
No staff reorganization recommendations for the Finance Department had been brought forward to the Budget Ad-Hoc Subcommittee. With implementation of the Tyler Munis ERP system, changes are being made to business practices. The Director of Finance was waiting until the new system was implemented to make recommendations for staff reorganization.
During the month of December 2017, a full-time Payroll Specialist resigned and a full-time Senior Offset Press Operator retired. In August 2017, the Offset Press Operator retired; and the position has not yet been filled.
Central Services
Central Services is a subsidiary of the Purchasing Division; and includes Reproduction (the copy room), mail service, City Hall Reception and Switchboard, and City Hall Receiving. The current budgeted staffing level follows.
There are several staffing issues to consider. First, there is no supervision within Central Services. All employees of the Purchasing Division, including those in Central Services, report directly to the Purchasing Manager.
City Hall Receiving and Stores, has limited hours of operation; as it is staffed by a part-time employee. This has been a continued source of frustration for the Community Services Department, which operates with extended hours and needs additional access to City Hall Receiving and Stores.
Both the Offset Press Operator and the Senior Offset Press Operator have recently retired. The job classifications are outdated and should be updated before recruitment begins.
Finally, there is very little flexibility when staffing City Hall Reception and Switchboard. The Central Services Clerk is the only Central Services job classification that includes these duties. When either of the Central Services Clerks is out, a hardship is created for coverage.
The Director of Finance recommends the City retire the outdated Offset Press Operator and Senior Offset Press Operator job classifications; and has prepared proposed new job classifications for Central Services Technician and Senior Central Services Technician.
The Central Services Clerks have been doing an excellent job performing Reproduction duties since retirement of the Offset Press Operator. The Director recommends the Central Services Clerks be reclassified as Central Services Technicians; which would result in a 4.9% pay increase for the two full-time employees.
The Director also recommends staffing City Hall Reception and Switchboard with 3 part-time Receptionists to provide maximum flexibility for coverage. This concept was previously discussed with the former Budget Ad-Hoc Subcommittee of the City Council; and there was general consensus for the idea. The proposed Central Services Technician job classification includes back-up coverage for City Hall Reception and Switchboard. Therefore, 3 part-time employees and 2 full-time employees would be available to provide continuous Reception coverage during City Hall hours.
If City Council were to approve the recommendations, the budgeted staffing for Central Services would change as follows, resulting in a decrease of one full-time employee and annual savings of $34,467.
Payroll
The City has two full-time Payroll Specialist positions. Only one is currently filled, and the other is vacant due to a recent resignation. These two positions are responsible for the following routine work.
• Process 800-1,000 pays every 2 weeks, depending on the time of year. This includes review of timesheets, payroll calculations, system processing, and reporting.
• Bi-weekly and monthly reporting for CalPERS and other employee benefits, including reconciliation and remittance of City payments and employee withholdings.
• On a near daily basis provide information for Public Record Act requests and Management requests. This includes producing records, analysis, and reconciliations.
• Bi-weekly reconciliations based upon information input to the system by Human Resources staff.
• With every pay period, process some combination of accrued leave cash-outs, computer loans, accrued leave adjustments, and pay adjustments.
• Answer employees’ questions on a daily basis.
It is vital that Payroll is error free and processed on time, every time. To meet deadlines, the two Payroll Specialists consistently work overtime; and are continually attempting to catch-up with workload demands. On an annualized basis, the Payroll Specialists worked more than 500 hours of overtime and earned $19,589 of additional compensation during 2017. For example, the Payroll Specialist worked the entire holiday week to process the January 4th payroll. Phase II of the Tyler Munis system implementation will begin soon; which includes Payroll and Human Resources.
The second Payroll Specialist resigned, as she was able to secure a higher-paying position with less work.
Staff plans to open recruitment for the vacant Payroll Specialist by the end of the month. In the meantime, the Director has secured a temporary employee from Accountemps to assist the remaining Payroll Specialist.
The Director highly recommends funding a 3rd Payroll Specialist before opening the recruitment. The additional annual cost of $73,200 would be partially offset by the $34,467 savings noted above for Central Services reorganization and $19,589 of overtime savings; resulting in a net annual cost of approximately $19,143 for the recommendations in this report. The additional full-time employee in Payroll would be offset by the reduction of one full-time employee in Central Services.
The positions affected by both proposals are within the AFSCME 809 bargaining group. Management has met and conferred with the AFSCME 809 President.
Other Finance Department Staffing
Phase I of the new system implementation is expected to go live in within the next 60 days. Staff expects there will be months of trouble-shooting before the new system runs smoothly. Phase II of implementation includes Payroll and Human Resources; which will require overtime/temporary help and at least 12 months to implement.
Over the next two years, we anticipate additional retirements and resignations from the Finance Department. The new system and business practices are expected to reduce the overall workload once they are running smoothly. Therefore, the Director expects to re-distribute the workload through attrition as retirements and resignations occur.
There is one position in the Finance Department subject to the hiring freeze imposed in November 2016: Administrative Secretary. The Director has been working without a Secretary for nearly 2 years; and does not propose to fund the full-time position at this time.
V. FISCAL IMPACT
If the City Council approves staff recommendations, there will be a net annual additional cost of approximately $19,143. The vacant positions will not likely be filled until the end of the fiscal year. Therefore, no budget amendment is requested.
The City would need to purchase a computer and a workstation for the proposed additional Payroll Specialist. Due to vacancy savings, the existing budget can absorb the purchase.
VI. EXHIBITS
A. Resolution No. 18-004, A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CARSON, CALIFORNIA, AMENDING THE CLASSIFICATION PLAN, RESOLUTION NO 77-111, BY ADOPTING THE REVISED AND/OR NEW JOB CLASSIFICATIONS FOR CENTRAL SERVICES TECHNICIAN AND SENIOR CENTRAL SERVICES TECHNICIAN (pages 6-7)
B. Proposed Central Services Technician Job Classification (pages 8-9).
C. Proposed Senior Central Services Technician Job Classification (pages 10-11).
A.
Prepared by: Kathryn Downs, Director of Finance