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HomeMy WebLinkAbout5.f. Staffing RecommendationsS itC" .r, Fit)S(-P,tU(11 t,SRJPif I t ', , fi11 April 15, 1988 TO: Mayor Hoke Councilmembers Napper Oxborough Walsh Wippermann FROM: Stephan Jilk, Administrator/Clerk RE: Staffing Recommendations Pursuant to direction given at our special council meeting of March 8, I have reviewed immediate and extended needs for personnel staffing for city operations. The process which has brought us to this point of recommendation has been as follows: (1) Department heads and I met. I requested that they review the operations and responsibilities of their individual departments and determine: (a) If current operations are being handled with existing staff (b) If not, what immediate staffing solutions would they recommend to solve these needs; (c) If current operations are being met, are there any possibilities for "sharing" of staff to assist other departments where help is needed; and (d) What longer term (after this budget period) staffing needs would be if current building trends, current development projects level and recreation program levels would be maintained. (2) Department heads then presented their proposals of need at a group meeting. This group discussion allowed all of us to look more closely at sharing possibilities and allowed all of us to better understand the operational responsibilities and staffing needs of each other's departments and the entire city operation. (3) I then met with each department head to discuss in further detail the expressed needs as presented by them. We further reviewed budget constraints, revenue projections and extending the time frame for the addition of certain staff. • (4) I then made my own determination of what needs could be effectively met with, what I felt would be the best number of total staff additions, what our revenue would allow us to do now and next budget period; and finally, (5) 1 met with each department head to discuss what my recommendation would be to you. Following is a department by department "statement of need" so to speak and then recommendations for meeting those needs. NEEDS (A) Administration: There exists two very clear and distinct needs in the administration area. With several special projects going on and the increase in activity in administration of personnel due to contract administration, personnel policy review and updating comparable worth studies, proposals for fire and police studies, just to name a few, I find myself struggling to keep up and unable to do so. The ability just to meet with individual department heads each day becomes a real luxury. Mostly due to special_ problems such as the University of Minnesota, resource recovery project, airport issues and special need to be at least minimally involved in all developments and associated projects, I have little time left for personnel administration. Add to this the need to handle all union matters, and what we have become is a reactive administration rather than proactive. At a time when the representation by my office has become so very important to those outside city hall, in business and other governmental agencies, I don't have that luxury without giving up some other "in house" need. I require assistance to take over some of the tasks that can be handled by,someone with the abilities to put together reports, do research, organize files and establish contacts with other cities or agencies that do not specifically require me to attend to. These are many "preliminary" tasks to projects I involve myself in which a'person with good organizational skills, some experience in personnel matters and experience in local government could handle. There also exists a need to provide support to Sue Johnson in her role as my administrative assistant, secretary to the City Council and Deputy Clerk. This support needs to come in the form of a secretarial function to address typing, filing and copying needs. As the number of public hearings for assessments increases, the number of special projects I'm involved in and as the amount of personnel increases, her workload increases. Just to keep up under present �a conditions, about two hours additionally a day is needed to allow Sue to maintain our master filing system, my clerical needs, city council minutes, resolution and ordinance books and assist councilmembers and the Mayor with clerical. and research assistance. (B) Parks & Recreation: As the community grows and we are fortunate to add additional park facilities and programs, parttime and fulltime staffing in parks and recreations must be able to handle the increase demand for services in these areas. Dave Bechtold has very competently developed an extensive number of programs here in Rosemount in which our citizens take a very active part. Between softball, volleyball, soccer, pom poms, tiny tots, ice skating, senior citizen field trips and the development of a blossoming passive park program/system, there are services available for and drawing active participation by several thousand people annually. Through the use of several parttime persons throughout the year and now by having access to park maintenance personnel and his assistant, Lisa Jost, Dave has operated his department well. But also, as with other department heads, Dave is involved in all development proposals as well as the expansion of parks systems and programs to go with these developments. All of this spreads Dave's time as a department head and Lisa, his assistant, way to thin. Parks and Recreation finds itself is in dire need of extra clerical support and assistance for Lisa in her position to assist in program management. Too many simple clerical tasks are being completed by these two, and they are having to set aside projects which, in their and my determination, are necessary'for the operation of their department. In the area of park maintenance, a person with training and education in the area of park forestry is needed. With the number of basic landscaping needs in our community and neighborhood parks and the large "Carrolls Woods -Schwarz Park" area to maintain and develop, our needs are serious in this area. The simple brushing, trimming and turf management needs are being met now, but we need to meet the more technical aspects of forestry management. (C) Community Development/Building: As stated by Dean Johnson in his report to you on March 8, with the number of "special projects" he is involved in and because of the substantial increase in developments, both proposed and processed, his whole department is being overloaded and needs assistance. The types of specific needs are similar to administration, and those would be: someone to assist Dean or take up some of his work on an everyday basis so he can concentrate more effectively on the necessary special projects, provide backup and continuous support to Donna Quintus as department assistant and help to Ron Wasmund in, handling reports and filing for the permitting/inspection process. Presently there is no one on staff to backup the position held by Donna as department secretary/assistant. When she is absent, Ron, Paul Heimkes or Dean have to pick up to process building/zoning permit applications. With the number of permits, some 900, in all in 19€37, to process, just doing that one task is, a full time job leaving no time for Donna to do other clerial tasks for the planning commission, Mike Wozniak and Dean. As the building program expands that department feels a major brunt of it. Dean's continued involvement in some of the "special" projects is essential because of his, expertise, longevity and experience in certain areas and ',because certain projects fall in the "Community Development"'area because of their nature. Based upon time spent in the past, if the maximum time required by all special projects would occur in one week, Dean could expect to work some 50 hours on those projects alone. This is unlikely to occur, but it shows the need. Dean now spends half to three-fourths of his normal week on these projects. (D) Public Works Rich Hefti now has Cindy Dorniden for clerical support for his position as city engineer/public works director. Cindy also processes all water and sewer billings, assists Rich in his development of assessment rolls and mailings and acts as backup to the receptionist position and Diana, as Deputy Registrar. Just the backup to these positions requires some two hours each day of her time due to breaks and lunch time. Cindy responds to the needs because of her experience in Deputy,Registrar and for receptionist because no one else has that time available. Again, because of increased development and associated engineering projects, Cindy's assistance is vital to Rich and Blake, his technician, at this time. More time needs to be made available to Cindy for providing this assistance. Blake Crandall was hired only recently to offer assistance to Rich in the area of project coordination, project inspection and some inhouse engineering expertise available for simple projects in which the city acts as its own contractor or as owner/prime contractor. A :major portion of Blake's time will be paid for out of development projects. 4 This has worked well in the few months Blake has been with us. The needs for this type of staffing was underestimated however and in the future additional inhouse engineering technician assistance will be needed. This summer Rich is attempting to hire an engineering intern out of budgeted funds for parttime help in his department. Also, as we add developments, we addlstreets, water services, sanitary and storm sewer systems. This requires additional maintenance personnel. At the present time we feel by utilizing parttime personnel in the summer months and contracting out some projects, we are meeting our streets, utilities and general maintenance needs. In the next budget period we will be considering additional general maintenance/utility personnel. Rich Hefti also supervises the cleaning and upkeep of our city hall with our cleaning service. At this time, with the city hall cleaning service costs and ',those of the fire department cleaning, we spend some $15,000 plus a year. This is with the company proposing the low, by some margin, of four bids submitted for this service. About three hours a week by three people at the fixe station and seven to eight hours by two people at city hall is all that is being spent by these services. At the cost of $15,000 plus, the cost of adding a fulltime janitor to'provide 40 hours a week service to do not only cleaning but possibly light maintenance and painting would add only about $1500 a year ' to our costs and would in fact lower''our costs because such additional cost items such as painting, carpet cleaning, etc.would be done by this staff person. A lot of requests to use the council chambers are coming in. Having a person available to set up, change around, clean up afterwards and provide better building security would make the facility available for more use by the public while retaining its use by staff and city officials. 4E) Police Department: Chief Staats presented information to you on March 8 also on the directi.on'he is taking in planning his department's expansion based upon the population of the community, the service needs of the community and the addition of 24 hour dispatching by 1991 At the present time the police department is made up of two three man patrol teams responsible for all response to calls on their respective shifts. Because''the limits of six men providing 24 hour coverage and having time available for vacations and court time, there is a',period when only one officer is on duty 2:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. daily. We also have one investigator/sergeant and a'',secretary/dispatcher. 5 Because of the amount of time needed to respond to calls and follow up with written reports, all investigations are handled by the sergeant along with child abuse matters, school liaison matters, animal control coordination and his own schooling. Because of the substantial overload in the department, it is felt the police service needs are not being adequately met in the community. These needs will increase as our population increases and commercial development occurs. The need for additional staff exists in clerical, investigative and patrol areas. (F) Finance/Deputy Registrar: At the present level of operations, financial operations needs are being met. This is partially due to the terrific job',Don, Jeff and Diana are doing for us. It is also partially due to the fine job Don has done for staff and his own department in updating the use of computers in his department through which flows all money matters for the city and HRA. Don has expressed a concern that as we expand our accounting procedures to maintain a fixed asset'system and a better accounts receivable -accounts payable'system, as recommended by our auditors, add.iti.on.al staff time may need to be allocated to assist Jeff May, but not at this present time. Diana, as Deputy Registrar, has a small bit of time available to assist in clerical help',for other departments and that is being utilized. RECOMMENDATIONS: Immediate (1) Administration/Parks & Recreation Department (a) Hire one fulltime secretary with experience in computer use and secretarial duties. This person would provide assistance to Sue Johnson to free up her from the basic filing, copying and typing requirements of that position. This will allow Sue to pick up some of the tasks she has been unable to maintain because of her load and also would allow Sue to'',pick up some research, compilation, personnel matters and other "support" tasks that I am currently handling to free me up to respond to issues and projects. (b) This person would also be "shared" with Parks & Recreation to provide much needed clerical assistance in that department. Some of the work being done in Parks & Rec, such as their newsletter, could be tied into 6 Administration to be processed better and provide better communication throughout. (c) By expanding Sue Johnson's position to more of an administrative assistant, we would be demanding more of her than she is now required to respondto and more than what her job description calls for. She is now supervising the receptionist and would be responsible for supervising the new secretary. She is totally capable to respond to these changes. I would also expect to increase her salary by $1,000 per year to $27,000 and place her job position one step up in our ranking to equal to that of patrolofficer, bringing it to a level 10 position and with a salary range of $21,000-$32,000. (2) Police Department Authorize the hiring of two fulltime police officers to start in September. This would also allow the establishment of two four man teams. Also, create a position of Team Patrol Sergeant for each of these teams. By doing this each team would have better supervision on the streets. Also, this would offer investigative support to the present Sergeant. By adding these two officers, additional patrol time would be available. It is recommended that the two new Team Patrol Sergeants be given $50 'additional a month. It is further recommended that the present Sergeant position be elevated in title to Lieutenant. No salary increase is suggested at this time for that change. Except for the Patrol Sergeant increase, these positions were budgeted for in 1988. In fact they were budgeted for earlier in the year so that by hiring in September all these costs will be covered by the 1988 budget. (3) Community Development/Public Works Departments With a major emphasis on bringing in support to the community development department because of the increasing building program and to assist Dean in maintaining his special projects, we recommend that three actions be considered for approval. (a) Hire an additional secretary with experience in computer use and building, contracting or city government. This position would provide backup for Donna, clerical assistance for Dean, Mike Ron and Paul. This position would also give clerical assistance to Cindy in Engineering as would be available. 7 (b) Purchase a computer and software for the maintenance of a complete building permit system. The system proposed in a memo attached from Dean Johnson is already in use in other cities and can be easily modified to our needs. The equipment required to run the software will be able to be the "work horse" for the networking of several units we already have and for which we planned to implement next budget year. It would also be capable of using data available from Dakota County on property descriptions, etc. which we use extensively in the permit process. (c) To more appropriately reflect the responsibilities of Ron Wasmund and MIke Wozniak in the structure of that department, I would recommend the following: (1) The title of "city planner" again be established and that Mike be placed in that position at January 1, 1989. He is now designated assistant city planner. His salary is $24,000/year now and is scheduled to increase to $25,000 at January 1, 1989. To reflect his capabilities and actual work load, there should come an increase of $1,000 now to $25,000 and another $2,000 to $27,000 at January 1, 1989. At January 1, 1989, based upon continued quality performance and expansion of his responsibilities, promote him to city planner, vacating the assistant position, (2) Ron Wasmund is filling a position that in some communities is a department head. In our community,based upon the excellent operational qualities of the community development department, I would hesitate to create a separate department. I would feel comfortable in granting this promotion to Ron because of his capabilities and performance, but I feel we would create an injustice to the entire community development process if we divided the department now just to attempt to reward Ron: Ron's salary range for his position is $29,000- $39,000 as set in our salary plan. Ron is currently at $33,000 reached only recently on April 1, 1988, his anniversary date. To reflect his performance and responsibilities in such a growth program as the building department is experiencing and to bring him to the midpoint of his salary range, I would .recommend his salary be adjusted immediately to $34,000/year and $35,000 at January 1, 1989. 8 To respond to the needs of the cleaning/maintenance-for city hall and the fire. station, I recommend hiring a janitor at the starting salary of $6.50/hours plus benefits. This would be an advertised position. SUMMARY - immediate Needs: (1) Hire one fulltime secretary for Administration/Parks & Rec., Starting salary range $6.50-$8.00 an hour. (2) Hire one fulltime secretary for Community Development/Public Works Department. Starting salary range $6.50-$8.00 an hour. (3) Hire two police officers to start on or about September 1 at entry level salaries. (4) Hire a janitor to start June 1 at entry level salary of $6.50 an hour. (5) Salary Adjustments - Position Adjustments (a) Sue Johnson -- Increase salary to $27,000. Move position to level 10 range (b) Ron Wasmund -- Increase salary to $34,000/year now, $35,000 at January 1, 1989. (c) Promote two officers selected by Chief Staats to Team Patrol/Sergeant and increase their salary by $50/month. (d) Promote Tyle Knutson to Police Lieutenant with no salary adjustment at this time. (e) Adjust Mike Wozniak salary by $1,000 now and to $27,000 at January 1, 1989. Promote him to city planner at January 1, 1989 upon continued quality performance. Total 1988 estimated cost of personnel additions/adjustments: Additional personnel $39,500 Salary adjustments 3,100 Total $42,600 Budgeted $20,000 Personnel costs not budgeted for 22,600 Computer equipment & software 111000 Unbudgeted Total. $33,600 9 0 i 0 The majority of our new personnel costs are directly related to the building program and special projects which may or may not be peculiar to Rosemount such as the resource recovery project. These "specials" never seem to go away, and we must meet the demands of the development that is occurring. With the increased number of building permits and with the increased permit fees we have recently established, we now expect an increase of $75,000+ in building activity revenue over what is budgeted for in 1988. This obviously will cover all the unbudgeted costs associated with these changes. Thiscashflow will continue as long as the building program continues, and I feel it totally justifiable to relate these increased revenues to the demands they bring on staff.; and therefore .recommend that the needed dollars to complete these staffing recommendation be considered "available" from those sources and request your approval of those recommendations listed under Summary_ Immediate Needs. FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS: Not to continue this already lengthy discussion any longer, but I feel it necessary to again relate some discussion on future needs for staffing and to "plant the seed" on the direction we may be heading and consideration you may give to areas of operation for us all in the future. (1) Community Development/Economic Development/IiRA: To initiate a concerted effort towards economic development in Rosemount and to better coordinate the activities of the "city development" and "HRA activities", a separate position of Economic Development Director might be considered. This person could absorb the position of Executive Director of HRA and report to the City Administrator or Community Development Director depending on the direction given to economic development in the city. This position could utilize other support staff to create a city newsletter, a better link to business and community interests and respond more efficiently to development that was economically oriented versus residential development. This position could be funded by city and HRA funds. (2) Other Staff: Additional staff in the areas of Public Works, Parks, Engineering and possibly Finance will be discussed in the next budget discussion; and of course beyond. This period of growth, when services ►rust meet population needs sooner than revenue from those new developments comes in, will be a trying time for all of us. It is not an unusual situation and is experienced by any growing community. We 10 will all work to maintain the integrity of the service programs for the city while keeping an ever watchful eye on the budget. If there are any questions I can answer on this subject, I will be pleased to do so. smj Attachment 11 ?osemounl Vyof TO: Stephan Jilk, City Administrator FROM: Dean Johnson, Director of Community Development DATE: April 15, 1988 SUBJ: Staffing Issues/ Department Computerization P0 11( , 1510 28 15 145 ROSEMOUNT. MINNESO [A 55068 02 -423-4411 S50, __�- As part of our department staffing review over the past several months, we have been evaluating building permit generation/ retrieval computer systems. This has included participation in the county's "geographic information system" assessment and detailed review of various building inspection computer programs. Mike has primarily been involved in the former. Ron, Donna and Don Darling have been involved in the latter. I have been "refereeing" both approaches. We've reached a conclusion and would like to make a recommendation, complimentary to the timing and recommendations on staffing needs. Hence, I offer the following information for immediate consideration. Being aware of the many alternatives that were considered for staffing, and now aware of your own conclusions in that regard, I think our request is not only timely, it is cost effective. Our request is to acquire the first phase of an eventual computer networking system for immediate application in the inspections department. As you are aware, we have actually looked at this type of system for years. We looked seriously at budgeting for this item last year. It was set aside, while all departments looked at networking more closely. The increase of activities in our department and the need for additional staff in and out of the department, suggest that this system be considered, in spite of the budget. We have evaluated two programs, in detail, most recently -- Burnsville's and Bloomington's. Upon recommendation by Ron and Donna, we propose the Bloomington system. It not only offered the least cumbersome and most efficient software, it was cheaper! A formal presentation on this system was made by Computer Information Systems to Ron, Donna, Don and myself. Simply put, this software would accept the county's parcel file for an immediate name, address and parcel ID data base. It would allow us to enter all known permit data to date into this base. It would allow us to write permits, record inspections, issue occupancy certificates and generate all building reports for all new permits. Convenient retrieval of all other sorts of data is unlimited. This is just a nutshell description of the system. The bid received for this package is $11,350. This includes the "working slave" computer that will ultimately be the base for a networking system. It includes the software, which we will own and can modify. It includes all installation and training for the system. It includes a "no waste" auto -feed printer. For an additional $450, we can modify Donna's existing PC as an additional unit to enter data on the system until the full networking capacity is acquired. Also included in the bid is an option to increase the base unit capacity from 60 MB to 80 MB for an additional $275. The actual bid breakdown is attached. Staffing Issues/Dep ent Computerization Page Two IV 0 With Don's review and assistance, we feel comfortable in making this request at this time. We all agree that there is nothing premature in this acquisition, regarding the possibilities of the county's potential GIS system, If anything, it would be complimentary, not duplicative. It would also get us on line with this type of computer application one to two years earlier. I would ask that you discuss with Don the merits of the "no waste" printer and the additional 20 MB capacity. There may be cost incentives and conveniences in both, but each could be added at a later date. Our minimum recommendation, then, would be for the balance of the system at a cost of $10,750. The beauty of this system is that it will integrate with what Don feels the City will be contemplating next year. It will also allow us to use existing PC's as work stations for networking. It is our intention to budget $5,000 for 1989, which will allow us to add four workstations in a true networking capacity. In considering this acquisition out of budget, please keep in mind two points: the longer we put off the system the more labor intensive it gets in the absence of the system and when we actually do the inputting; and we have already generated revenues equivalent to this cost as a result of the new permit fees. The former goes without saying, the latter I'll elaborate on a little. I In the first quarter of 1988, we've issued 35 single family permits. This compares to 22 new permits in 1987, or an increase of 59% for the same quarter. Our permit income in 1988 was $21,235, compared to $11,216 for the same quarter last year. This is an increase of 890/c, and the new fee structure was not implemented until the last week of February. Our residential permit income is already $10,000 more than last year for the same period, Total permit income in 1987 was $144,000. $200,000. It may . even reach $225,000. Department budget is $175,000. Conservatively, our 1988 income will reach The total 1988 Community Development These figures reveal two things: we're ahead of last year's pace, but we're far more ahead of last year's income. One identifies the problem and the need, the other identifies a solution. Thank you for your consideration at this time. If approved, we can be on line and beginning operations in 2 to 2-1/2 months.