Staff Authorization for Filling a Building Permit Technician During Leave of Absence

The purpose of this case is to update the City Council regarding an upcoming staffing shortage in Community Development’s Building Division and to seek the City Council’s direction for addressing the shortage.  The shortage is due to a pending leave of absence. 

As the City Council is aware, activity in the Building Division is very high; as is activity within the entire Community Development Department.  Staff is seeking direction from the City Council regarding what option to take in order to complete the Department's work from approximately mid-March to mid-June timeframe of the upcoming construction season. 

Staff will provide additional detail regarding alternative options when this case is discussed with the City Council; however, Staff's recommended option at this time is to backfill the hours with a former City of Ramsey Permit Technician.  The former Permit Technician is fully certified and familiar with the City’s processes.   Alternatively, the City could consider other internal options or to conduct an external temporary recruitment for an Administrative Assistant.  

A few broad options exist to consider. Staff is seeking broad policy direction at this time among these options:

1. Hire the City's previous Ramsey Permit Technician as a temporary fill-in
2. Reassign an existing city Administrative Assistant from another department
3. Hire a temporary Administrative Assistant

Staff will bring back a specific action to hire at a future regular meeting, as required. The Permit Technician requires certain technical knowledge above and beyond an administrative assistant. Staff has reached out to the City's previous Permit Technician, who expressed a willingness to fill-in on a temporary basis.  Based upon building permits fees that are paid by the applicant, high quality service and quick turn-around times are part of the building division's metric for customer service.  This option will help maintain those high service levels.

Staff also discussed filling with a temporary internal reassignment. Staff feels that this would be disruptive to the work needs in other departments.

Finally, Staff has attempted temporary administrative assistance from an outside source in the past. Staff has found that there is too much training and orientation needed to make this effective for a short duration temporary solution. 

Revenue to run the Building Department operations is collected through building permit fees.

Staff recommends that the City Council fill this temporary need with the City's previous Ramsey Permit Technician for the duration of the anticipated leave (Mid-March to Mid-May 2020). 

Motion to authorize staff to commence hiring discussions and negotiate terms with the City's former Building Permit Technician to serve as a Temporary Permit Technician from approximately Mid-March to Mid-May 2020.