5.4C. SR 07-22-2002 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Personnel ~4ddixions: Staff Reorgani~ation July 15, 2002 Page 5 of 5 With Terry Maurer filling the position of public services director he would be doing similar work as to what he currently does. He currently provides information, support, and helps coordinate the projects for wastewater treatment, streets, engineering, planning (and to a lesser degree economic development), and building/zoning. However, in this new position Terry would be the direct supervisor and be responsible for coordinating multi-departmental activities and ensuring that good communication and supervision is taking place on all projects and that good customer service is being provided. Also when the remodeling of city hall is completed, building/zoning, engineering, economic development, and planning (BEEP), will remain in the old city hall area and it makes sense to have someone on this side of the city hall in charge of BEEP. The city will still need to have services provided by consulting engineering firms. The net cost in 2003 for hiring Terry Maurer may not be too much as we would be paying less to Howard R. Green and we may be able to recapture some expenses for Terry's work on development projects. Likewise in 2004, it will not cost the city too much to hire the additional staff for an engineering department as we can recapture some of the costs through the PRP and development projects. We are still working on estimates for revenues and expenses but we didn't want to go too far without getting some feedback from the City Council on this position, department, and reorganization proposal. A question that may arise with this proposed reorganization is whether or not I am recommending the city create a position for Terry Maurer or if I'm recommending establishing the best organizational structure and position for the city. I strongly believe that I am recommending what is best for the city and that Terry Maurer is the best person for this position. On the other hand, if Terry was hired as a city engineer, then why couldn't Steve Rohlf, Phil Hals, or Michele McPherson become the public services director and have dual responsibilities? The answer is they could but engineering is the key crossover department and Terry is in the best position to assume this dual role due to his experience. Terry has extensive experience with the City of Elk River, has expertise in engineering, knows the development business, knows how to coordinate department activities and understands their interrelationships, has customer service skills, has owned and knows how to run a business, ...in short, Terry has the best experience, knowledge, and skills to lead the city as a public services director. Additionally, this will keep the same Elk River "team" in place. If the city were to advertise for this position I don't think that we could find someone better qualified than Terry Maurer. I see this as an opportunity for the city to establish a needed position, to £RI an organizational void, and to hire a proven commodity. If Terry Maurer were to not accept a public services director position with the city, we would still look for an engineer to fill this role and function, as initially the position would be fulfilling dual responsibilities as engineer and public services director. Again, if the workload continues to increase in the city, there may very well be a time where this position needs to split off into a community development position and a public works director position. At this time I am not looking for layers upon layers of management, but Elk River's organization is very flat and there needs to be some consolidation in order to be more effective, to provide better supervision, and to provide better coordination of services. If we don't make some changes pretty soon we will be going backwards in terms of providing quality customer service.