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HomeMy WebLinkAbout9.g. Resignation of Assistant City AdministratorCITY OF ROSEMOUNT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FOR ACTION CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: FEBRUARY 4, 1992 AGENDA ITEM: ASSISTANT CITY ADMINISTRATOR AGENDA SECTION: RESIGNATION NEW BUSINESS PREPARED BY: STEPHAN JILK, CITY ADMINISTRATOR AGENDf?EM # .9 ,11..1111!!'' G ATTACHMENTS: LETTER OF RESIGNATION APP VE B . MEMO STAFFING RECOMMENDATIONS I have received a letter of resignation from Susan VanderHeyden, our Assistant City Administrator. Based upon this letter Sue's last day with the City will be February 28th, 1992. Sue will be taking a position with the City of Woodbury as their Assistant City Administrator. Our task will be to consider Sue's replacement and/or other restructuring of our staff in order to meet: the needs of,the-community and our staff support. Attached please find my comments regarding this matter which outlines a plan to revise our staff to meet these needs now and in the future. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Motion to accept the resignation of Susan VanderHeyden and to authorize the City Administrator to proceed to restructure staff as outlined in his memo of January 29, 1992. COUNCIL ACTION: i 0- k'/Ity of (Rosemount PHONE (612)4234411 FAX (612) 4235203 January 31, 1992 2875 145th Street Went, Rosemount, Minnesota Mailing Address: P.O. Box 510, Rosemount, Minnesota 55068-0510 Stephan Jilk City Administrator City of Rosemount 2875 - 145th Street West Rosemount, MN 55068 Dear Steve, MAYOR Edward B. McMenomy COUNGILMEMBERS Sheila Wasson James (Red) Stasts Harry Willcox Dennie Wippermann ADMINISTRATOR Stephan Jilk Please accept this letter as notice of my resignation, effective Friday, February 28, 1992. I have accepted the position of Assistant to the City Administrator with the City of Woodbury. The City of Rosemount is very fortunate to have the generous and helpful staff that it does. I will sincerely miss working with everyone. The decision to leave the City of Rosemount has been a very difficult one for me. I have sincerely enjoyed my time with the City of Rosemount and wish everyone the very best! Sincerely, Susan L. VanderHeyden 6verytkings Coomming (Up RosemouvdY i J recvved paper TO: Mayor McMenomy Council Members Klassen, Staats, Willc x, Wippermann FROM: Stephan Jilk, City Administrator DATE: January 31, 1992 RE: Susan VanderHeyden Resignation Staffing Considerations We are in receipt of a Letter of Resignation from Susan VanderHeyden. Susan has held the position of Assistant City Administrator since May 6, 1991. Susan will take a position of Assistant City Administrator for the City of Woodbury and her last day of employment with the City of Rosemount will be February 28th, 1992. With the resignation of Tracie Pechonick as Economic Development Specialist and now the resignation of Susan as Assistant City Administrator we have an opportunity to consider alternatives to the existing makeup of our staff to meet our continuing expanded service requirements. With the establishment of the Port Authority and discussion about placing an even greater emphasis on economic development within the city we are afforded now an opportunity to reconsider staffing requirements and how we can meet them with the least cost and greatest efficiency. Present Staffing: In the areas of administrative and economic development staffing we presently have a structure as follows: City Administrator (Port Auth. Executive Dir.) I Asst. City Administrator Economic City Clerk Dev. Specialist Admin. Secretary Receptionist Within these positions all administrative functions, most personnel functions, health insurance management, city clerk functions, mail service, packet preparation, election 1 coordination, receptionist duties, secretarial duties for Administration, Port Authority, Economic Development activities and special project coordination for such projects as the Armory are performed. The hiring of the Assistant Administrator was to establish a position that could provide daily leadership to Economic Development and assist in the administration of special projects and act as backup to the City Administrator. The vacating of these two positions .will leave a major gap in the staffing of the above functions as they relate to the administrative department and assistance to other departments. These two positions played a major role in technical as well as time consuming work being done by the Administration Department. Replacement of these people will be essential unless we are willing to accept less in sense of work tasks being completed and a drop of support in the areas of administrative and economic development functions. I would like to ask your consideration to replace both of these people and to do so I would like to suggest the following options. These options are not totally defined here in that I am not providing job descriptions and salary costs, but would suggest that we would do that if you approve moving ahead. Option #1: Replace both people with the same required position responsibilities and maintain the status quo. This option would hold no change and no cost savings. This option would allow us, in the future, to upgrade the Economic Development activity to a division within the Administration Department with a "manager" of Economic Development and complimentary staff. Option #2: Replace Susan VanderHeyden with someone to fill the Assistant City Administrator position and hire a Economic Development Manager(EDM). This option would leave the Assistant Administrator requirements as is but upgrade the Economic Development specialist position. The EDM would hold qualifications and experience such that she/he would proceed with minor supervision and direction, all leadership for our economic development activity. This option would provide more staffing support than at the present but with more expense to the Port Authority since they would fund the position. Eventually the Economic Development activity would become a separate division of Administration with complimentary and supporting staff such as clerical positions. Option #3: Revise the present staffing structure to emphasize the true "Administrative functions" and the true "Economic Development" functions while upgrading the Economic Development activities and the position that staff would fill. 2 This option would consist of: A) An administrative assistant who would perform all personnel functions and city clerk activities, prepares agendas, City Council Information Packets, Port Authority Information Packets, clerk activities, meetings, maintains "official files" for the City, oversees elections, processes all licenses and supervises other administrative personnel including secretaries and receptionist. Would also act as City Administrator in her/his absence. This position would be a slightly downgraded position from that of Assistant Administrator. B) Secretary II, who would provide all administrative secretary support in the Administration Dept., assist the Administrative Assistant in personnel matters, attend city council and Port Authority meetings to take minutes, perform many functions at the direction of the Administrative Assistant including elections, official file maintenance and act as the secretary to the City Administrator to coordinate meetings and schedules. And as "Council Secretary" to provide clerical support to the Mayor and City Council. C) Secretary I, who would provide general secretarial and clerical support to the Administrator, Administrative Assistant, Economic Development Manager and backup to the receptionist. Also conduct all mail service activity. D) Receptionist, who would provide general receptionist duties for City Hall. E) Economic Development Manager. Provide all economic development staffing support to the Port Authority. This would be an upgraded position from that of Economic Development Specialist and would be considered a position which would be held by someone with several years of experience in the public sector marketing, developing incentive programs, developing and managing public/private sector joint projects and the development of financing programs for such projects. The cost to fill this position would be greater than we have experienced with the present position. Option *3 would look like this: City Administrator FAdm I inistrative Assistant Economic Manager Dev. MI I Sec! II Sec -I Recep hist Economic Dev. Specialist (open) Economic Dev. Secretary (open) 3 Costs: By upgrading the City Clerk position, the existing secretary position and hiring a secretary but eliminating the Assistant Administrator position we would realize a cost savings the first year of about $19,000 and a second year cost savings of about $15,000 to the General Fund. The Port Authority would finance the Economic Development Manager position. There would be an increase in cost to the Port Authority to upgrade this position but we would expect a greater effort and success in meeting our economic development program by doing so I recognize the concerns you all have raised regarding the hiring, even to fill vacancies, of additional personnel. I would suggest that in considering the following recommendation that it calls for the employment of the same number of employees that we currently maintain but with less cost to the city's general government fund. It also calls for the continued "sharing" of such positions as the secretaries in Administration. These positions provide support for all staff in Administration, including the Port Authority functions, most Fire Dept. clerical, and several functions for all other departments. Without replacement of personnel to maintain these services many inner office support functions and community or "customer" services will suffer. I ask you to consider this. I am sensitive to your concerns of the numbers of staff we maintain and if you are willing to "test our strength" to determine our need for these staff positions we could make the following recommended changes, but not fill the secretary I position for a period of time to see if it will be necessary. I cannot recommend that because I am convinced we will most certainly suffer because of it. With several staff members already spending 50 to 55 hours a week just keeping up, we do need these people but I most assuredly am willing to try with _a six month review of the situation. RECOMMENDATION. Proceed with Option #3. With this option I believe we can continue our administrative functions and still broaden our economic development program. The overall cost to the City - General Government and Port Authority would be about the same, possibly slightly higher depending on the final salary structure for the Economic Development Manager. I would ask your approval to proceed to develop job descriptions, salary ranges, advertisements and hiring procedure for the Administrative Assistant and Secretary "I and II positions. The Port Authority will discuss this same proposal and recommend the action to be considered on the Economic Development Manager. 4