MEMORANDUM

To:     Mike Wildgen

          City Manager

From: Debbie Van Saun

          Asst. City Manager

Re:     organizational update

Date:  April 20, 2005

This memo serves as an update to some of the organizational adjustments that have been accomplished this year or are underway.  As you may recall, many of these adjustments address workload and/or efficiency issues within the organization.  Additionally, we provide updates on some recent hiring activities in the organization.

City Manager’s Office

Regan Gerlt, our Management Assistant, will be completing her MPA course work in May and moving to Virginia to intern with the City of Portsmouth.  We have hired Jonathan Douglass from the University of Kansas MPA program – he will be completing his full time internship with us starting in May, 2005 as our new Management Assistant.  Projects he will be assigned include assisting with the 2006 Budget, completion of the 2006 salary survey process, assisting with the MOU process in 2006, as well as providing administrative support on a variety of projects throughout the organization in the upcoming year.

Utilities Department

As a final step in the reorganization of that department, the selection process is underway for a licensed engineer to work in the engineering division.  This division was formed in 2004 to provide technical and professional support to both the water and wastewater divisions.  In 2004, Philip Ciesielski, P.E. was hired to lead that division in these support efforts.

Legal Services

It is anticipated that the selection process for the new Staff Attorney position (approved for the 2005 budget to provide legal support primarily to the public safety departments) will be completed in the next several days.

Administrative Services

With the departure in 2004 of Al Martin, Human Relations Specialist in the Human Relations Department, staff in the City Manager’s Office analyzed the duties for that position as well as the defined need (per the Employee Survey and studies by the Management Team) for training resources throughout the organization.  At the conclusion of our research and analysis, we concluded that the organization would be best served by reassigning the training coordination activities currently part of the Human Relations Specialist position and expanding those duties into a Training Specialist position.  This position will be assigned to the Administrative Services Department under Frank Reeb’s direct supervision, but will be performing training duties (coordination, outreach, etc.) for the entire organization.  A job description is attached and the position will be housed in City Hall, fourth floor.

Human Relations

An additional benefit to the reassignment of the training coordination duties from the Human Relations Specialist positions will be the ability for the two remaining Specialists and the Director to devote additional effort to complaint intake, mediation, and case management duties.  The intended result will provide more resources to the fulfillment of the major mission of the department.  As an effort to increase clarity and public awareness of that mission, the department, currently identified as the Human Relations/Human Resources Department, is preparing a transition plan to be known as the Human Relations Department.  The term “human resources” is associated throughout the public and private sectors with personnel management/services and this transition will avoid the use of confusing, outdated terminology.

Neighborhood Resources

Two positions within the department were recently filled with new staff members.  Treni Westcott is the new Zoning Enforcement Officer and Lesley Rigney is the new Neighborhood Programs Specialist. 

Public Transit

We are in the final stages of the selection process (reference checks, salary discussions, etc.) with the top candidates for this position.  Our goal is to complete the hiring process this month.

Planning

The newest staff member to join the department this month is Brad Ellis, a long range planner who is replacing Bryan Dyer.  Lisa Pool, a current planner, and Mary Miller, planner I, have been working in the department since early March.  The attached summary of the organizational activities goes into greater detail.