To: Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council
From: Steve Potter, City Manager
Prepared By: Frances Robustelli, Assistant City Manager
TITLE:
Title
Budget Staffing Plan for the City Manager’s Office
LABEL
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommendation
Adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager to amend the Budget Staffing Plan by adding one Limited Term Deputy City Manager position; and approving a FY 2019/2020 budget adjustment between the General Services Administration Account and the City Managers Department.
Body
DISCUSSION:
In early 2019, during the budget building process, the City Council adopted a list of key community focused priorities (Attachment 1). In addition to these priorities the City Manager has identified three major initiatives for the City to focus on over the next few years. They include: A Workplace Culture Initiative, Infrastructure and addressing the Unfunded Pension Liability and Improving and Investing in Technology (Attachment 2). These three key initiatives directly support the City Council’s priorities. In addition to these major initiatives, City staff have identified several operational inefficiencies directly related to the current composition of the City Charter, Municipal Code, Administrative Policies, Council Policy Resolutions and Civil Service Commission Rules, some of which are significantly outdated.
The topics of infrastructure and pension liability can largely be managed by current staff and budget allocations in the operational departments, Public Works and Finance, respectively. However, the culture initiatives (E3), large scale technology projects (i.e. Integrated financial/HR/Utility Billing software program (ERP)) and overhaul of administrative changes in governing documents would be best served if managed by staff reporting directly within the City Manager’s Office. The recently appointed Assistant City Manager has taken the lead on the culture initiatives and will maintain oversight to ensure successful implementation over the next several years, as well as provide oversight of the City Manager’s Office administrative functions and a number of operational departments.
Successful movement of the other initiatives forward will take a focused effort from a high-level staff member within the organization with the autonomy and authority to engage and hold multiple City teams accountable to actionable results. This proposal also assumes the position would not only serve as the project manager for these functions but would also serve the critical role of pulling all subject matter experts together to gather the information necessary to produce a final work product. Work products could include creating and implementing project plans and timelines, creating specific work plans related to major IT initiatives and policy improvements, serving as the primary project manager for the ERP system implementation, facilitating cross-functional teams and creating policies and procedures.
The position would be posted internally and externally to attract the broadest range of talent while also providing opportunities for internal candidates to compete. Recruitment would begin immediately following Council approval with a goal to appoint the new role towards the end of calendar year 2019. The initial employment term of any limited-term employee is two years, with a possible one-year extension by the City Council, for a total term of three years.
FINANCIAL IMPACTS:
The salary range for the DCM is $126,468 - $152,785 annually. The total annual costs with benefits factored in ranges from $178,320 to $215,427, dependent upon the incumbent’s background and experience and where in the range they are placed upon appointment. Since the position is limited-term, it is appropriate to utilize some one-time funding sources. The position is proposed to be funded using existing fund balance in the non-recurring General Fund.
ALTERNATIVE ACTIONS:
The City Council could decide not to approve the new limited duration FTE and appropriation of funds. Proper resourcing of these projects would minimize significant delays in implementation of key initiatives.
CEQA:
The City Manager has determined that the recommended action described in this agenda report is not subject to CEQA, pursuant to CEQA guidelines, Section 15060(c).
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
ATCH 1 - Council Priorities
ATCH 2 - City Manager Initiatives
ATCH 3 - Resolution with EX “A”
EX A - Amendments to Fiscal 2019/20 Budget
NOTIFICATION:
None