Agenda - Council Work Session - 10/13/2015

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CC Work Session Meeting Date: 10/13/2015 Information Title: Discussion Regarding the Proposed 2016 Staffing Changes Purpose/Background: 2.1. The purpose of this discussion is to provide the City Council with an opportunity to address each of proposed staffing changes effecting the upcoming budget. All of the proposed staffing changes have been proposed in order to meet the strategic goals of the City. In addition, this discussion includes an immediate need in the Community Development Department related to the current Permit Technician Assistant position, currently budgeted for 20 hours per week. Types of Changes and Current Policies There are four types of proposed changes which will be explained in detail, including the associated budget impact, services provided, and strategic imperatives that can be achieved as a result. This includes, additional hours to current positions, new positions, reclassifications, and market rate adjustments. The City's Personnel Policy, adopted in August 2014, and scheduled for updating and re -adoption, has policies in place governing reclassifications and market rate adjustments. Staff would like to address any possible changes to those policies in the coming months. The reclassifications and market rate adjustments planned for 2016 fall within the current policies. Note, that previous iterations of the budget had a reclassification request for the Public Information and Events Specialist. This reclassification request has been withdrawn due to the fact that this is a new position and that was recently established in 2015. Staff would like to examine a policy in regard to the purpose and frequency of reclassifications and market adjustments prior to recommending any change to this position. The remaining proposed market rate adjustments for consideration this evening impact two groups: the City's Paid -on-call Firefighters, and selected AFSCME employees under a wage study that was committed to during the last round of negotiations for the 2015 - 2016 AFSCME contract. Additional Hours - Current Need Community Development Director Gladhill would like to provide the City Council with an update on his Department's immediate need regarding additional hours now and continuing into the future due to current and ongoing workload demands. He would like the City Council to consider approval for changing the current Permit Technician Assistant to a full-time employee, taking action at the October 27, 2015 meeting. Within the proposed 2016 Budget, this position is proposed to be re-classified as a Permit (or Community Development) Technician, a regular full-time employee. Staff recommends that the 2016 change in title follow the standard process. Increasing the Permit Technician Assistant's hours to 40 hours per week for the remainder of 2015 will increase expenditures by $13,511. This assumes an additional 560 hours with health insurance waived. The increase in expenditure is offset by the increase in actual revenue from Building Permits. The increase in hours has already been factored into the proposed 2016 Budget and has a net effect of an increase of $4,480 following other line item reductions. This increase cost is also offset by additional revenues over and above the original forecasted levels for 2015. Permit levels in all sectors are exceeding original expectations for 2015 and are outlined in the attached spreadsheet. Additional Hours - 2016 Proposal The IT Manager would like to increase the hours of its IT Support Tech in response to the increasing number and complexities of technologies requested and utilized by City staff. Since 2011 the City has continued to add technologies, but has actually reduced staff hours in the IT department. Without an increase in hours, staff technology needs may be prioritized under larger projects or vice versa. Either scenario could cause delays to requests from the public.