06-23-2014 CC - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Item No: 07B Meeting Date: June 23, 2014 Type of Business: Business City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: James Ericson, City Administrator Item Title/Subject: Resolution 8270 Approving Revisions to the Economic Development Specialist Position Description and Authorizing the Advertisement of the Part Time Position Introduction: Earlier this year, the City Council authorized staff to advertise to fill the vacant Economic Development Specialist position. Staff interviewed qualified candidates with second interviews conducted with three finalists. An offer was extended to the identified top candidate, which, after some negotiations, the candidate rejected. While we were disappointed with the outcome, the process did prompt us to re-evaluate the position description to better reflect our expectations. Discussion: It became clear during the interview process that some of the tasks and responsibilities which we felt were critical to the position were not expressly articulated in the job description. Duties such as marketing, communications, social media outreach and web development were under-emphasized in the description, if mentioned at all. Conversely, given the limited availability of developable land in the community, certain other tasks and duties were deemed to be less “mission critical”. With these points in mind, staff presented a revised job description to Economic Development Commission on May 23, 2014. The Commission agreed with the revisions and supported the re-naming of the position to “Business Development Coordinator”. The Commission and Staff believe that a position focused on matters of business development and business retention would be more consistent with the community’s present needs. These changes were presented to the City Council at the June 2, 2014, Work Session, and staff was directed to bring the revisions back for formal approval and to reauthorize the advertisement for the revised position. At the Work Session, staff indicated that the revised description had been forwarded to Springsted for review, to ensure that the changes being contemplated would not materially impact the nature of the position. Springsted agreed that the changes were not substantial and would not necessitate a revision to the assigned HAY points or to the compensation.