05-04-2020 Council Work Session Packet

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WS – 5 WORK SESSION STAFF REPORT Work Session Item No. 5 Date: May 4, 2020 To: City Council From: Karissa Bartholomew, Human Resources Manager Re: Review of Finance Director Position Background Staff was asked to review the potential of having Sarah Cotton perform the duties of Finance Director upon her promotion to City Administrator. Cotton is receptive to maintaining high level oversight and duties within the Finance Department while performing the City Administrator role. However, in order to be successful, some reorganization of job duties among current positions would be needed. To eliminate the Finance Director position, a Finance Manager position and Assistant City Administrator/ Human Resources Director position would need to be created to absorb the additional workload taken on by Cotton. This would include increasing the job duties of the current Accountant II and Human Resources Manager positions and reassigning job duties among finance staff. The Council is being asked how they would like to proceed based on the following options: 1. Maintain current City Administrator and Finance Director positions; and 2. Add Finance Director duties to City Administrator position and reorganize responsibilities among existing staff through the promotion and elimination of positions. Another consideration would be to create a part-time communications coordinator as proposed during the April 6th work session. This individual would manage and coordinate the City’s communications, including social media, website, newsletter, marketing, and cable television. This would more easily allow job duties to be transferred amongst various employees in each department, generating more productivity and efficiency in accordance with an employee’s job skills. As discussed during the April 6th work session, the PT Communications Coordinator position would be funded by a $40,000 transfer annually from the Communications Fund. In addition, the actions taken to eliminate the PT Office Specialist position at the April 13, 2020 City Council meeting, more than cover the remaining cost of the PT Communications Coordinator position. The net impact of the addition of the PT Communications Coordinator and elimination of the PT Office Specialist position is approximately $15,000 in savings to the General Fund, $3,250 to the Water Fund, and $3,250 to the Sewer Fund.