CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Determine future staffing for the administrative support of the Mayor and City Council and direct staff to begin recruitment
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DEPARTMENT: City Manager’s Office
SUBMITTED BY: Marcie Schatz, Deputy City Manager
BOARD/COMMISSION REVIEW:
N/A
BACKGROUND:
Section 1-5-5 of the Municipal Code defines the support positions to the Mayor and City Council as follows:
Executive Assistant To The Mayor: Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection 1-6A-5.4 of this Title, the Mayor shall have the authority to employ an executive assistant to perform such duties and responsibilities as shall be established by the Mayor. The Mayor shall evaluate the executive assistant annually adhering to the evaluation schedule provided for all employees.
Executive Assistant To The City Council: Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection 1-6A-5.4 of this Title, the City Council shall have the authority to employ an executive assistant to perform such duties and responsibilities as shall be established by the City Council. The City Council shall evaluate the executive assistant annually adhering to the evaluation schedule provided for all employees.
The code also similarly defines an Administrative Clerk position which no longer exists.
Staff recommends elimination of these job descriptions from the code in the future. There are a very limited number of jobs defined in the municipal code and they are typically included due to statutory responsibilities (Finance Director, City Engineer, City manager, etc).
DISCUSSION:
Current duties and responsibilities
The Mayor and City Council offices are currently staffed by two full-time positions, an Executive Assistant to the Mayor and an Executive Assistant to the City Council. The primary duties for both positions (80 hours total) are listed below. While the work varies from week to week, average hours are included for context.
-Liquor Commission and Liquor Licensing support (24 hrs./wk)
-Meeting Room management (8 hrs./wk.)
-Board and Commission appointments and communication (8 hrs./wk.)
-Reception and customer service (12 hrs./wk.)
Other administrative support (28 hrs./wk.)
Considerations for the Future
Over time, the organization has seen a decrease in the need for administrative support across departments. Due to retirements of the both administrative positions at the end of 2019, this is a unique opportunity to review and redefine the structure and duties of these positions and whether two full-time positions are needed.
For each of these job duties, it is important to have primary and secondary staff identified for redundancy. Staff has reviewed the current duties of the two positions to identify any duties that could be accommodated (in a primary or secondary role) in other departments.
• CMO, HR and City Clerk staff can take the primary and secondary role with Meeting Room management.
• City Clerk staff provides secondary support to Liquor today and will continue in that backup role.
• CMO, HR and City Clerk can provide secondary support for Board and Commission appointments and communication.
In addition to reviewing current duties, this is an opportunity for the Mayor and the City Council to discuss future skills and responsibilities for these positions either not provided today or provided at a lower level than needed moving forward.
• One of the primary administrative functions of these positions is maintaining and coordinating schedules. Is there an increased need for the scheduling function?
• The Communications Team manages ~3 hrs./week of basic letter writing, talking points, graphic design, photography, etc. that could be managed by an administrative support position.
• Research/policy guidance
• Additional communications/public relations support
• Other needs identified by the City Council
In order to move forward with recruitment, the City Council should provide direction on the number of positions needed to support the Mayor and City Council and any recommended changes to the job duties listed above.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The current budget for salary and benefits for the two positions is $207,000.