Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, March 06, 2018
Discussion
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER THE PROPOSED REORGANIZATION OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND CITY MANAGER’S DEPARTMENTS(CITY COUNCIL)
Body
I. SUMMARY
The City Council has been reviewing reorganization to various City departments since 2011, due to the reduction in the City’s workforce and increases in workload. This includes a significant increase is building and planning activity over the last three years. This report discusses promoting the existing Community Development Director to the Assistant City Manager; promoting the Planning Manager to the Community Development Director; promoting the Principal Planner to the Planning Manager. The report also recommends reclassification of the Principal Management Analyst to Assistant to the City Manager. The reorganization results in $77,583 in savings to the City’s General Fund for FY17-18 and $27,967 cost in FY18-19.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
The City Manager recommends approval of the proposed reorganization.
Body
III. ALTERNATIVES
Take any other action the City Council deems appropriate.
IV. BACKGROUND
Loss of Key Management Personnel
Dramatic downsizing of the City’s operations during last decade has made a review of the City’s departmental and organizational structure a critical project. As a point of comparison, the City has eliminated over 26% of its workforce during this period of time. Proper reorganization is critical to ensuring efficient and effective service delivery when personnel is reduced.
During the past three years, staff and the City Council have been reviewing the various City departments. The City Council has made several changes to the departments and to the organization as part of the review. Staff is recommending additional modifications for City Council’s consideration to help support the City’s goals and to ensure work is being performed effectively and efficiently and that the duties of our employees are within established and approved Job Specifications.
Since the resignation of Assistant City Manager Cecil Rhambo in January of 2017 and Human Resources Director Gail McMahon in June of 2017, the City has been functioning with Dr. Jim Hart as our Interim Assistant City Manager/Human Resources Director. His ACM duties included the direct supervision of public safety division; and assisting the community services and human resources departments on complex issues, as well as special City Council assignments. Dr. Hart served until January of 2018 in this capacity, when, as a CalPERS annuitant, he reached his service hours limit of 960 hours. The City Manager is currently performing these three functions. The City is in the process of interviewing and selecting a Human Resource Director. The City had moved forward with interviews for an Assistant City Manager, however this process has been discontinued.
During discussions with the Ad Hoc Budget Subcommittee (FY2017-18 Budget) in June of 2017, staff recommended creating an Assistant City Manager for Economic Development and an Assistant City Manager for Administration, with the recommendation of promoting Mr. John Raymond to the Assistant City Manager for Economic Development position. In order to minimize the impact on the City’s budget it was recommended that the Community Development Director position not be filled. The Ad Hoc Budget Review Subcommittee recommend against creating the two Assistant City Manager positions due to ongoing budget shortages. It was recognized that the City may have to continue for some time to function with a limited number of supervisors and management personnel, which makes the organization difficult to manage and difficult to carry out basic assignments.
Management of the 157-Acre Project
The City Council has assigned the successful development of the 157-Acre project the City’s highest priority. The project has required almost all of Mr. Raymond’s time and he is hard pressed to manage the Community Development Department. The Council has also been concerned about Mr. Raymond’s workload and requested reorganization options to assist him. Mr. Raymond has been working during the last six months to bring on board the site’s master developer and contractors who will be responsible for the constructing infrastructure and environmental remediation systems. Grading for the entire site is expected to begin in April of this year.
Planning and Development Activity
During the last three years the City has seen an unprecedented upswing in development activity. Building permit valuation in 2015 was $76 million, while the permit valuation in 2016 was $244 million and for 2017 $246 million. The Planning Division has taken the lead on the General Plan and Zoning Code Update, Development Impact Fees, and the Logistics Moratorium and Community Facilities District implementation. They have also assisted in the implementation of the Oil Code, Waste Management Transfer Station Code Enforcement, Cal State Master Plan, the Tesoro Community Benefits Agreement and the several major code enforcement cases. With the implementation of the planning project deposit system the department has improve the process for architectural, landscaping and environmental review. The division now administers 15 consultant contracts and has assisted the City Council in the review of AQMD regulations, such as Rule 1180.
ANALYSIS
Assistant City Manager
It is recognized that the City does not have the budget for two Assistant City Managers. It is also recognized that Mr. Raymond will need to devote substantial time to managing the 157-Acre project and will not be able to assist the City Manager until his work in the 157-Acre project begins to transition. It is recommended that Mr. Raymond be promoted to the Assistant City Manager to provide stability to the organization and the project. The total compensation difference between the Community Development Director position and the Assistant City Manager position is $12,000 annually. There would be no impact to the City’s General Fund as Mr. Raymond’s salary is budgeted from the Carson Reclamation Authority budget.
Community Development Department Reorganization
Based on both demands of the 157-acre project and the continued increasing development activity, it is recommended that the position of Community Development Director be filled as well. Staff recommends promoting Mr. Saied Naaseh, the Planning Manager to this position. Staff also recommends promoting Mr. Richard Rojas, the Principal Planner to the Planning Manager spot. The City has face tremendous instability in the critical planning functions and these promotions would provide the City stability it needs to continue to progress forward. Mr. Naaseh and Mr. Rojas have been critical individuals in managing the Community Development Department’s workload, as Mr. Raymond has been devoted to the management of the 157-Acre project. Besides the increase in development activity, the City is currently in a major update to the City’s General Plan, which will set the vision for the community for decades into the future.
Assistant to the City Manager
The Council should consider the increasing workload in the City Manager’s Department with this reorganization. Since Mr. Raymond will not be available to directly manage the public safety services and assist in the management of the community services and human resources departments, staff is recommending the reclassification of the current incumbent Principal Administrative Analyst, Ms. Lisa Berglund, to an Assistant to the City Manager. This reclassification is supported by several key factors.
In early 2017, the City retained the services of Ralph Andersen & Associates to perform a study regarding the Principal Administrative Analyst position in the City Manager’s Office. Over the years, the responsibilities assumed by the Principal Administrative Analyst grew increasingly complex. Many cities organize their City Manager’s Office with both an Assistant City Manager and an Assistant to the City Manager. The Assistant to the City Manager position recognizes that there are increasingly complex assignments that require the skill set, experience and knowledge that is not provide by a management analyst. This includes working closely with the Mayor and City Council on special projects and understanding the political nature of these work assignments. Management Analyst are not typically asked to work in a political environment.
After studying the Principal Analyst job description and the duties of Ms. Berglund, Ralph Anderson & Associates recommended reclassification of Ms. Berglund to Assistant to the City Manager. The Assistant to the City Manager is not to be confused with the Assistant City Manager. The Assistant City Manager is at a much higher level as that person serves as the Acting City Manager in the absence of the City Manager. The Assistant City Manager also has experience as a department director and assist the City Manager in directing the operations of all departments and directly supervises department directors
The study found that the City had six city managers in the last five years. A number of departments had two to three interim and permanent department directors in the same time period. The termination of David Biggs in 2013, led to a number of interim and “permanent” city managers, including Jackie Acosta, Nelson Hernandez, Sam Ghali, Cecil Rhambo and myself. The sheer number of city managers has created instability for the organization and critical institutional knowledge has been lost.
With the departure of Mr. Rhambo, I was required to shift more responsibility to Ms. Berglund. However, Ms. Berglund’s increasingly complex work assignments predated my start with the City in July of 2015, when Ms. Berglund served as the election official and to manage the successful 2016 Utility Users Tax Measure. She also managed the City’s 2018 Rose Float project.
The City has been fortunate to have key personnel during the period of management instability or the outcome could have been much worse. In particular, the City has benefited from the stability and institutional knowledge provided by Ms. Berglund. She is a resource on a daily basis, providing institutional knowledge of the City Council’s decisions. She has also drafted City Council’s policies, resolutions and ordinances. During the time period that City Manager Hernandez was transition out and Acting City Manager Cecil Rhambo was starting, Ms. Berglund ran the agenda related staff meetings and performed tasks to keep the management team and staff working together during this period of turmoil. She has also stepped in to manage various divisions.
The costs for the reclassification for the Principal Administrative Analyst to Principal Analyst for the balance of the FY2018-2019 Fiscal Year would be approximately $4,580 for the rest of the fiscal year. The Ad Hoc Budget Subcommittee review this request and did not support the recommendation at that time, however the situation has changed.
V. FISCAL IMPACT
|
|
Remainder of FY17-18 |
FY18-19 |
|
City Manager’s Office |
|
|
|
Vacancy savings for Assistant City Manager Charged to the General Fund (vacant through December 2018) |
$(72,023) |
$(113,312) |
|
Reclassify Principal Admin Analyst (step F) to Assistant to the City Manager (step D) |
$4,580 |
$14,411 |
|
Community Development Department |
|
|
|
Promote Planning Manager (step F) to Community Development Director (step E) |
$6,983 |
$21,972 |
|
Promote Senior Planner (step E) to Planning Manager (step B) |
$6,909 |
$21,739 |
|
Vacancy savings for Senior Planner (vacant through June 2018) |
$(35,916) |
|
|
Savings from filling Senior Planner at step C (currently step E) |
|
$(10,593) |
|
Total Fiscal Impact in General Fund |
Savings of $89,467 |
Savings of $65,782 |
The promotion of the Community Development Director to Assistant City Manager will have no impact on the General Fund, as the compensation is funded from the Successor Agency and Reclamation Authority. The compensation increase for the remainder of FY17-18 is $4,792 ($15,080 annually).
VI. EXHIBITS
None.
Prepared by: Kenneth C. Farfsing, City Manager