During the “Great Recession” between 2007 and 2011, the city went through major organizational changes including a loss of over 35% of the city’s workforce. As a result of the downsizing need, city staff developed and the Council approved the Sustainable Sparks Services Initiative (SSSI).

The SSSI was a systematic approach to analyze a balance between service needs and available resources. This has been the backbone of the city’s service delivery plan, which is the management of the employee resources. Any additions or deletions to the city workforce complement work under the Council guidelines under the approved SSSI plan.

The primary guidelines of the SSSI are a review of every open position within the city and the following questions must be resolved by the City Manager:

• Can the open position be eliminated?
• If not:
  • Does the position need to be modified in any way?
  • Does the position need to stay the way it is currently structured?
• If the position is going to be ongoing within the city—modified or status quo:
  • Can the position be recruited from within the city’s current workforce?

The Council’s desire has been to recruit internal opportunities from within the current city workforce and to bring new outside staff positions to fill the lower level opportunities.

Complement Changes

Management Services Department

With the retirement of the current Administrative Services Director, and for the purposes of stability and succession planning for the City, the recommendation is not to fill the position of Administrative Services Director, but rather reinstate the position of Assistant City Manager.  Replacing the Administrative Services Director position with an Assistant City Manager (ACM) position will allow the City Manager to mentor the ACM in developing, coordinating and implementing citywide goals, objectives, policies, procedures and work standards. In addition to the current duties of the Administrative Services Director, the Assistant City Manager will also be expected to work closely with the City Manager, City Council, oversee City department leadership, public and private organizations, and citizen groups to achieve citywide goals.

Below is the proposed complement:

Community Services Department

The Community Services Department is the largest city department spanning multiple areas of highly specialized technical expertise.  For this reason, the department and the City Manager recommend modifying the structure to allow several additional managers to take broader responsibility for functional areas.  In addition, this structure supports succession planning by creating opportunities in the department for employees to expand their knowledge of operations beyond their narrow technical role, and to spread chances to gain managerial experience across more positions.

Below is the proposed complement.

Below are the final position counts.  Note that the first three are title changes, and the last two result in new positions and an increase in the number of positions in the complement.  As you can see from the total in the chart, the net change to the Community Services Department complement total is +2.  However, there are two subordinate positions that will not be fully funded next fiscal year.  One of the subordinate positions is recommended for vacancy the full fiscal year 2017, and the other is recommended for vacancy for half of fiscal year 2017.

The Management Services and Community Services complement changes FY17 financial impacts are $50,438.  These are included in the FY17 budget book.

City Attorney’s Office

The City Attorney’s Office has two different types of attorney specializations - criminal and civil.  The recommendation to the City Council is to take the one existing job family in Appendix A and split the specializations into two job families.  This recognizes the different expectations of each job family, and reclassifies the salaries based upon the job requirements.  If the Council approves the changes to the Appendix A for job families, the complement changes for the title changes would be necessary.

Differentiating between the civil attorneys and the criminal attorneys’ resolutions is recommended in light of the breadth of knowledge the civil attorneys must have in order to properly advise their clients on a daily basis. The civil attorneys are expected to provide advice in different types of law including federal, state, and municipal laws, civil rights, contract, constitutional, excessive force, open meeting law, property law, right of way, franchise, human resources, and employment law. In addition, the civil attorneys provide legal advice to the Mayor, City Council, and the City Manager, and all the departments in the city, and are capable of filling the prosecution position when necessary and aiding the officers in obtaining seizure orders. Providing this reorganization within the Attorney’s Office will aid in the hiring of new civil attorneys and the retention of current and future personnel.

Regarding the number of attorneys in the complement, a recommendation for one additional civil attorney is also before Council today.  Prior to the recession there were a total of seven Assistant City Attorneys, comprised of three prosecutors and four civil attorneys in addition to the City Attorney.  At this time there are only two assistant civil attorneys, two prosecutors and the City Attorney. With the upturn in the economy the city has experienced an increase in city services, city staff, and an increase in the demands on the Attorney’s Office from all departments including criminal prosecutions. As a result of the increased demands on the City Attorney’s Office, one additional Assistant City Attorney Sr. (Civil) is recommended in the complement.

Below are the proposed complement changes.

Below are the final position counts.  Please note that there is a net change of one position.  The other three changes are title changes:

The City Attorney complement changes FY17 financial impacts are $39,138.  These are included in the FY17 budget book.

1. The City Council may approve the personnel complement changes as presented by staff.
2. The City Council may not approve the personnel complement changes as presented by staff.
3. The City Council may choose not to approve the personnel complement changes, but may provide other direction to city staff.

I move to approve the personnel complement changes in the Management Services Department, Community Services Department and the City Attorney’s Office.