Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, September 07, 2021
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER RESOLUTION NO. 21-120 OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CARSON, CALIFORNIA, REORGANIZING THE REPORTING STRUCTURE OF THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT (CITY COUNCIL)
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I. SUMMARY
The Department of Public Works proposes to restructure reporting relationships, add additional roles, and update existing classifications in the department to ensure efficient and effective management and operations in the department to meet current and future needs required to manage the city’s capital improvement projects and Public Works’ programs.
Article V, Section 500, paragraph B of the City Charter states “Any reorganization or restructuring of a department recommended by city manager must be approved by ordinance or resolution of the city council. Upon recommendation by the city manager, the city council, by ordinance or resolution, may assign additional functions or duties to offices, departments or agencies so long as not inconsistent with this Charter. The city manager shall recommend and the city council shall provide for the number, titles, qualifications, powers, duties and compensation of all officers and employees.”
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
WAIVE further reading and ADOPT Resolution NO. 21-120, “A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CARSON, CALIFORNIA, REORGANIZING THE REPORTING STRUCTURE OF THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT”.
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III. ALTERNATIVES
TAKE any other action the City Council deems appropriate, consistent with the requirements of applicable law.
IV. BACKGROUND
Eliza Jane Whitman, PE, LEED AP, ENV SP was appointed as the Director of Public Works and joined the City on January 25, 2021. As the Director, her goal has been to optimize the engineering, maintenance and operations of the Department. Based on her observations and knowledge of managing Public Works departments with engineering, operations and maintenance divisions, a restructuring is recommended. Her observations include reviewing strategic and day-to-day department goals and responsibilities; the divisional alignment; assessing job classification essential duties; as well as current and future talent needs. The proposed department restructuring will ensure that the divisions can operate more efficiently in order to provide a higher level of service to the public and internal customers. The proposed restructuring will allow the Department to manage projects, based on size and complexity, which are aligned with City Council priorities. Carson’s engineering department is extremely understaffed with professional engineers.
In the short term, to address understaffing, part-time on-call consultants have been used for engineering and project management. The proposal increases the department headcount by four, clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the Public Works Operations Manager and adding three additional engineers. The approval of the amended Public Works Operations Manager existing classification is covered by a separate agenda item (#2021-696).
The recommended changes will affect three (3) of the City’s bargaining groups related to their unit members. The Association of Management Employees (AME) will gain the return of an existing Public Works Operations Manager classification and Carson Professionals and Supervisors Association (CPSA/SEIU 721) will gain three (3) additional existing positions in the following classifications - a Senior Civil Engineer, Associate Civil Engineer and Civil Engineering Assistant. After filling the needed roles, the Department will conduct analysis to determine if there are gaps and a need for additional in-house support. At that time, and if determined necessary, the Department will return to present the proposed needs to City Council. The required Meet & Confer was completed with the bargaining groups as follows - AME on September 1, 2021 and both parties are in agreement with the updated Public Works Operations Manager job spec; American Federal of State, County and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME), Council 36, Local 809 on August 31, 2021 and both parties are in agreement with the impact of the reporting relationship changes on the AFSCME Local 809 unit members in the respective divisions; CPSA/SEIU 721 was completed on August 19, 2021 and both parties are in agreement with the additional CPSA/SEIU 721 engineering roles as well as the impact of the reporting relationship changes on unit members with the return of the Public Works Operations Manager classification, with the exception of the reporting relationships of the Sustainability Administrators. However, they understood the addition of the Public Works Operations Manager (an AME classification) and the Department Directors’ business justification for the reporting relationship change. The reorg has no impact on AFSCME Local 1017 members. The department will ensure that staff utilizes available software for project-management and maintenance activities to streamline efforts and optimize staff time. The type of software the department is considering includes Primavera and Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) programs.
By hiring professional engineers on staff, the City will realize a cost savings on the utilization of On-Call Consultants. The automation and streamlining of activities, along with utilization of the City’s existing Tyler Munis Financial software system, will allow the department to maintain expected service levels, manage budgets interactively, increase department efficiencies and move the City in to a more modern era related to managing the capital improvement projects (CIPs).
In addition to traffic, compliance regulations and city utilities, the Public Works Department supports the Community Services Department as well as the Planning, Information Technology and Public Safety/Code Enforcement Divisions; manages the studies, designs and construction of all capital improvement projects. Capital projects include streets, bridges, traffic signals, stormwater facilities, parks, and building upgrades; as well as providing technical and engineering support for the facilities maintenance division. The above needs are in addition to participating in various regional meetings.
Engineering and Operations
The FY 21/22 Operating and Capital Improvement Program (CIP) within the engineering department is approximately $70M. Based on industry standards, to run the department’s CIP, at a minimum, there should be one (1) Principal Civil Engineer/City Engineer, one (1) Traffic Engineer, two (2) Senior Civil Engineers, three (3) Associate Civil Engineers, and one (1) Civil Assistant Engineer; in comparison to our current department CIP staff of (1) Principal Civil Engineer/City Engineer, one (1) Traffic Engineer, one (1) Senior Civil Engineer, and two (2) Associate Civil Engineers. The Principal Civil Engineer/City Engineer can take on certain projects as project manager but must also have time to participate in outside meetings, participate in reviewing other projects and make technical decisions for engineering projects, as needed. This role should also oversee and provide technical input and guidance to the traffic and senior engineers. Finally, the City’s Principal Civil Engineer/City Engineer is anticipated to guide the more junior engineers per the profession’s expectations of becoming licensed Professional Engineers (PEs). This aspect of the engineering department is the technical side.
The operations side of the Department includes ensuring that the entire operating and capital program is met based on the scope, budget, schedule and contractual terms and expectations. Therefore, a Public Works Operations Manager with a PE license is proposed (Exhibit 3). This person must be an engineer, understand and be well versed in the fundamentals of engineering project management. Preferably, in addition to a PE, they should have a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification and a Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) certification. The role and activities are defined in the job description (Exhibit 3). In addition to overseeing the administrative staff work group, the Public Works Operations Manager would ensure that the project managers, in engineering as well as in operations and maintenance, are meeting project obligations specific to scope, budget, and schedule. It is expected that this individual will be developing Gantt charts with project milestones. The existing and proposed organization structure for the impacted divisions is being presented (Exhibit 2).
V. FISCAL IMPACT
There is impact to the General Fund which will require reallocation of budgeted funding within the Public Works Department.
VI. EXHIBITS
1. Resolution No. 21-120 Public Works Re-Organization (pgs. 5-8)
2. Existing and Proposed Public Works Department Org-Chart reflecting proposed reorganization (pgs. 9-14)
3. Operations Manager job spec (pgs. 15-17)
Prepared by: John Raymond, Assistant City Manager-Economic Development and Eliza Jane Whitman, PE, LEED AP, ENV SP /Director of Public Works