Agenda - Council - 08/08/2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

details on the requests that were provided by the department heads in response to the Council questions at the last discussion. Councilmember Kuzma referenced the senior planner position and the difference between that proposed cost and the cost of using consultants. Community Development Director Gladhill stated that as they add a senior planner they would rely less on consultants. He stated that currently the balance between staff and consultants is working but is not working very well as they are not able to keep up with the workload. City Administrator Ulrich noted that a large portion of the City Clerk's duties is licensing and that senior planner would handle the licensing duties as well. Mayor Strommen asked if the redistribution of the duties would be temporary during this transition time for the City Clerk or whether when a new City Clerk is hired that would only be needed part-time rather than full-time. She stated that if this is permanent redistribution of duties, she would then want to know what the City Clerk position would look like once the phased retirement is complete and a new City Clerk is hired. Asst. City Administrator/Economic Development Manager Brama stated that he is unable to provide a certain answer on that as it is unclear how long the phased retirement will be, whether that is one year or five years plus. He stated that this was an opportunity to redistribute duties and assign them more appropriately. He stated that with this reorganization of duties and personnel, when the half time City Clerk fully retires and if a full-time City Clerk were hired that would only be the addition of a half time personnel credit rather than a full credit. City Administrator Ulrich stated that unfortunately there are some unknowns at this point. Councilmember LeTourneau stated that he interprets that City staff is proposing the half time City Clerk position and rather than adding another half time position, staff will be absorbing those duties internally. He stated that this is an opportunity to distribute that other half time credit between existing staff. He appreciated the ingenuity of staff and stated that he is willing to support staff in this attempt. Mayor Strommen stated that it appears that a job analysis has not been done to efficiently plan not only for the short-term but for the long-term as well. She stated that it seems that the strategic job audit and revisioning of job descriptions are missing from this process. She asked why the City Clerk job would look different in the future other than the fact that the current City Clerk is going to do a phased retirement. She stated that this appears to be shaped by circumstances rather than strategically planned. City Administrator Ulrich stated that staff attempted to look at this strategically. He explained that licensing seemed to fit more appropriately with community development, which would make a "one stop shop" for homeowners and create a better customer focused opportunity. He stated that staff is intentionally putting several of the staff people through City Clerk training so that they could become certified City Clerks. He noted that while those employees could serve City Council Work Session / July 25, 2017 Page 5 of 7