MEMORANDUM

To:     Mike Wildgen

          City Manager

From: Debbie Van Saun

          Asst. City Manager

Re:     Planning department update

Date:  March 1, 2005

We have recently completed a selection process for filling vacant positions in the Planning Department and wanted to advise you of the status:

· Lisa Pool – hired as new Current Planner; will start March 7, 2005

· Brad Ellis – hired as new long Range Planner; will start April 18, 2005

· Mary Miller – hired as new Planner I; started March 1, 2005

Mary will be filling a position that was previously budgeted as a clerical support position.  When the person filling that position recently gave her notice, we discussed the possibility of providing more professional planning assistance to the department and how we might do that with this vacancy.  Our vision for this adjustment involves assigning some of the more routine planning tasks (research, filing, responding to basic planning procedure questions from the public, etc.) to the Planner I position, thus freeing up the balance of the “current” planning staff to be more responsive to the work load of that division.

As we developed this concept, we looked to the results of the Business Climate Survey and noted that some areas of dissatisfaction could be related to staffing issues.  Specifically, 30% of the respondents indicated Planning Department staff was not easy to contact; 31% were not satisfied with staff’s interest level in helping them; and 45% were dissatisfied with staff’s timeliness of handling their application.  Clearly, with a full staff and an upgrade of a clerical position to a professional planner position, we look to make some inroads in these areas in the near future.