Agenda - Council - 09/15/1997 - Special

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and there will probably be a need for the Fire Chief to spend 100% of his time directing activities of the Fire Department. How this alternative addresses the concerns Work Load of th.e City Engineer~ Because of the City's continuing level of development activity, the City has at least a full-time job handling responsibilities that require an engineer. Although he is the designated Director of Public Works, it is not reasonable to expect that he can find time to adequately direct the activities of that department, which is located several miles from his office. Assigning those duties to someone else would allow him to concentrate his efforts on his areas of expertise. (Note: this does not eliminate the need for a Community Development Assistant who would assist both the City Engineer and the Zoning Administrator.) The Environmental Specialist would report to the City Engineer, inasmuch as his function is mainly one of planning. .Lack of Coordination_Between Public W_orks.Divisio.ns: There is an assumption by the uninformed that Public Works staff must share equipment and personnel because the Parks and Streets divisions are co-located in one facility and the seasonal nature of many of their tasks would seem to offer opportunities for combining forces to get the work done. The reality falls far short of the assumption. The supervisors of the two divisions have different management styles and don't normally collaborate with each other. As a result, the people they supervise don't collaborate. Equipment is purchased from the budget of one division or the other and there is a proprietary feeling about the items a division has "paid for." Because the equipment isn't considered by all employees to belong to "Public Works," as opposed to "Streets" or "Parks," there are ongoing complaints about scheduling equipment for use by the "non-owner" division. Attempts to address the lack of cooperation between the divisions have been unsuccessful. It appears to administrative staff that an on-site Public Works Director is necessary to ensure better cooperation among employees and better coordination of activities and equipment. The current Fire Chief is an effective supervisor who is skilled at team building. He is respected by his peers and his subordinates, as evidenced by his performance appraisals. He doesn't have a vested interest in either Public Works division, so he should be perceived by Public Works employees as a neutral party who has the best interests of the City in mind. He also has solid experience managing and allocating resources and assigning duties. The first year of directing the Public Works Department will be the most difficult and time consuming. As employees become accustomed to working together across divisions over time, the time commitment of the Director should decrease. At the same time,