Discuss 2020 Personnel Requests 

The purpose of this discussion is to provide the City Council with justification for the proposed personnel related changes, as they relate to the budget which is scheduled to be formally adopted on December 10, 2019. 

As a service organization, the largest component of the 2020 budget are personnel costs which make up approximately 67% of the proposed budget. The attached spreadsheet identifies the budget impact of five position changes; one replacement/new position and four reclassifications.  Every year as part of the budgeting process department heads review their department's needs, in the near and far term.  The current requests are very conservative and much needed based on the City's public service needs.  

Job Descriptions
As requested, preliminary draft job descriptions showing these changes will be added to this case by Friday afternoon. Activation of these positions is contingent upon Council approval of these as budgeted items.   

Summary of Request
To effectively provide public service and to retain the City's talent, the following staffing changes are proposed:  1) there is one new full-time position in Community Development that will serve to replace the loss of 24 four hours per week when the current full-time Community Development Assistant reduces from 40 hours per week to 16 hours per week, plus to take on the role of coordinating land use applications and to serve as the key contact for code enforcement management.   The City Council discussed this position in June and was supportive of the adding this full-time Planning Technician, and  2) there are four reclassifications that are proposed due to changes in job duties. 

Summary Justifications
Planning Technician:  This is a replacement position to be phased over the next 24 months.  The current Community Development Assistant will begin phased retirement 2/1/2020.  This position was presented at a council work session on June 11, 2019.  Position will split their time between coordinating land use applications and key contact for code enforcement management. 

Human Resources Generalist:  This position has taken on more independent HR work including assisting employees with benefits and benefit changes, collaborating with payroll, overseeing city's employee FMLA administration, coordinating  drug and alcohol testing,  serving as point of contact for employee First Reports of Injury/workers compensation interactions as well as managing all on-line NeoGov recruitments. 

Deputy City Administrator: This position was upgraded in 2018 to add additional responsibilities as Acting City Administrator.  As part of this upgrade, the position assumed a greater role in supporting the City Administrator.  The proposed position provides a role that develops skill sets and experiences in line with City Administration and creates a succession planning opportunity.  New duties are to include, but not limited to:  cross functional administrative project leadership, capital development project administration, and management analysis for the organization.

Assistant Fire Chief/Fire Marshal:  This position, held by the full-time Fire Marshall also has paid on-call responsibility as Assistant Chief.  This request will combine both positions and eliminate paid on-call position.  The additional responsibilities of the position are to assist in the overall planning, implementation, supervision and direction of the Fire Department along with the development, coordinating and scheduling of fire/EMS training.  This position will also assist the Fire Chief in implementing policy and direction to improve operational readiness and support responding firefighters.

Civil Engineer II:  This position reclassification recognizes the achievement of successfully passing the Professional Engineer's examination and achieving a license to practice as a Professional Engineer under the laws of the State of MN.  Obtaining a PE license will allow the employee to legally sign engineering studies, reports, plans and documents on behalf of the city.  The primary duties of the employee generally remain the same, except the employee is now eligible to sign off on behalf of the city those documents noted above, which will also enable the employee to assume additional duties with added responsibilities over time.

Staff Survey
As the Council is aware, the City conducted an all staff employee survey in 2019. The survey results indicate that staff perceives a need for additional staffing and showed a 16 percent drop (from 2016) in the perceived ability manage the current workload. The survey response and comments regarding this concern are attached.  

Respective staff members will be present to answer any questions related to their 2020 personnel requests.

30 minutes

2020 property tax levy.

Finance Director and Administrative Services Director

Review of 2020 Personnel Requests and impact on 2020 property tax levy/budget.