Adopt Resolution #17-01-031 Approving an Interim Structure for Community Development Department

The purpose of this case is to consider an interim structural change to the Community Development Department. A series of key land use policy projects has led Staff to recommend these changes to assign certain supervisory and administrative tasks from the Community Development Director to the City Planner and Building Official. Overall, this will not have any budgetary impacts to the approved General Fund Budget. It will simply reallocate within line items within the Community Development Department (from Professional Services to Full Time Staff).

Notification is not required for this topic.

Ideally, this topic would have been addressed under the context of the 2017 General Fund Budget. However, when this budget was prepared and ultimately approved, several of Staff’s assumptions evolved to lead to this discussion.

• Progress on The COR Development Plan
• Workload for the Comprehensive Plan Update
• Progress on the Corridor Improvement
• Desire for more regular communication between Planning Commission and Staff Liaison
• Desire for more regular development updates for the public
• Other topics as outlined in the attached detailed report

Each of the assumptions above warrant consideration to reallocating resources within existing team members to make better use of time and talent. Staff desires to make better progress on these long-term planning endeavors. Staff is doing an excellent job in addressing current planning efforts (zoning administration) such as site plan and subdivision review. However, larger policy-level projects have not made progress expected by City Staff and City Council.

Additionally, as the City progresses on The COR Development Plan Update, several opportunities for improvement in communication between Staff and Planning Commission have surfaced. Staff has implemented a pilot communication project with the Planning Commission, creating a Planning Commission Weekly Update. In just a short few weeks, this has improved the coordination between Staff and Planning Commission. In order to maintain a regular update, which does not need to be every week, but more frequently than monthly, a more sustainable workload needs to be achieved.

Earlier in 2016, Staff prepared a Community Development Staffing Plan. Within this document, assumptions for reviewing future Staff adjustments within the Community Development were outlined. Of note for this discussion, an assumption of no more than one (1) evening commitment per week per individual Staff Member was outlined. The Comprehensive Plan Update has added one (1) additional evening commitment per month and The COR Development Plan has added at least three (3) additional evening commitments (albeit on same evening as Regular Planning Commission), with the likelihood of additional evening commitments over the course of 2017 to complete the project.

Additional details on the request are included in the attached report.

The request is budget neutral. This will allocate approximately $4,920.06 from professional services budgeted amount to Full Time Staff within the Planning Division.

Staff recommends that the City Council adopt Resolution #17-01-031 approving the interim structure for the Community Development Department.  The Resolution proposes three specific actions:
1) Authorizes an interim structure for the Community Development Department assigning leadership of the Planning Division to the City Planner and assigning leadership of the Building Division to the Building Official; and,
2) Approves a temporary monthly stipend in the amount of $390.00 per month for the City Planner through December 31, 2017; and 
3) Recognizes that the City of Ramsey recently approved a market rate adjustment for the Building Official previously, and no wage adjustment is being proposed at this time

Motion to adopt Resolution #17-01-031 approving the interim structure for the Community Development Department.