3.6. SR 11-22-2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Administrator-City of Elk River Work Program November 22, 2004 6 With stq! assistance and Council in/Jut. /Jro/Jose oMions/or /Jreterred organizational structure. stafling levels. re/Jorting relationshi/Js. and a timetable_fOr ultimate implementation over a 2-3]ear /Jenod The fInal action step to discuss with the City Council is the organizational structure. One part of a revised organizational structure has already taken place with the hiring of a parks and recreation director. As previously noted, this has reduced the direct reports to me by two, so that the total is now 12, plus having a close working relationship with Peter Beck and Terry Maurer. From the very beginning of the discussions last winter, reducing the number of direct reports to me has been a major issue and one that has been viewed as essential in order for the overall management of the city to improve. I should not be city administrator and the parks and recreation director, community development director, public works director, etc. I cannot do the job the City Council expects when I have so many people I have to supervise. The hiring of a parks and recreation director has been very benefIcial to me, Phil Hals, Michele McPherson, and to the city. I expect that future changes will do likewise. There is no doubt in my mind that the next biggest issue that needs to be dealt with is the community development director. Communication and consistency issues related to growth and development activities dominated the discussion during the three Brimeyer worksessions this spring and highlighted the need for this position. Supervising the community development divisions of economic development, planning/code enforcement, and building/ environmental typically require a signifIcant amount of my work week. The hiring of a community development director will reduce the number of direct reports to me from 12 to 10 and this will free some of my time to deal with overall citywide management issues. After the community development directot position is addressed, the other issues are also important but less pressing. Moving the liquor store manager from my supervision to being supervised by the fInance director makes a lot of sense but the liquor store and its manager has never been a major concern or required a major time commitment from me. Attached for your review are the minutes from the June 14,2004 meeting when the organizational structure was last discussed by the City Council. Also attached are Options A and C. These charts are for the long-term organizational structure of the city but any chart or structure is open to changes as key personnel changes. It should be noted that when some of the key positions in the organization are not fIlled, then the divisions underneath these positions continue to report directly to me. This is clearly the case with the public works position. Also, with Option A, I would continue to have the city clerk report directly to me until an assistant city administrator position is established and fIlled. In the short term having Lori Johnson be the director of fInance and administrative services works very well. In the long term there may be problems as the fInance director is the top paid department head (along with the police chief) and the City Council may need to shuffle some of the supervisory responsibilities around at some point in the future if the fInance director and the director of fInance and administrative services is not the same individual. As previously discussed by City Council, this administration and fInance area allows for more flexibility in the future than the public works, or community development, or parks/recreation areas. s: \Council\Pat\2004\ WorkProb'Iam112204.doc