Body
City Manager’s Office
To: Mayor Kenneth J. Kreutzer and Members of City Council
Prepared By: Philip Rodriguez, City Manager
Date Prepared: May 25, 2018
PURPOSE
The City Manager is recommending an Organizational Plan and structure to the City Council that will best enable him to facilitate management of the entire organization, while achieving greater efficiencies and ensuring improvements to public services and increased accountability.
STRATEGIC FOCUS AREA
Updating the Organizational Plan will support the Strategic Focus areas of being Financially Responsible and building toward an Innovative, Data-Driven, Results-Focused City Government
BACKGROUND
According to the City Charter, the “City Manager shall be responsible to the Council for the proper administration of all affairs of the City placed in the City Manager's charge.”
A few of the City Manager’s powers and duties include:
• Appointing managerial employees on the basis of executive and administrative abilities;
• Exercising supervision and control over all administrative departments; and
• Recommending to the Council any proposal the City Manager believes to be advisable in order to establish, alter, consolidate, or abolish administrative departments.
After serving eight months in the role of City Manager, and by overseeing the conclusion of the Fiscal Year 2017 Budget, implementing the present Fiscal Year 2018 Budget and Budget Adjustment, working closely with hundreds of City staff members on numerous projects and activities, spending time individually with each member of the City Council who comprised both last year’s governing body and this year’s governing body, and by leading the development of the Strategic Plan and ongoing Business Plan process, it is the City Manager’s professional assessment that the City’s Organizational Plan should be modified and enhanced to best support the organizational needs of the City of Brighton and its future.
At this time, the Plan and structure that is being recommended to Council does not require additional commitments of public funds and resources, albeit title changes and position counts may be altered during implementation at the discretion of the City Manager in consultation with the Management Team, not to exceed existing budget. It does, however, provide needed administrative support to the City Manager and key leaders to meet the expectations of Council and the community. It is important to note, that any discussion regarding additional public funds and resources to ensure the Strategic Plan and Business Plan can be supported fully, will be presented to the Council by way of the Fiscal Year 2019 Budget process later this year.
A contributing factor of the new structure not requiring additional public funds or resources, is that in the City’s Code today, there are fourteen (14) departments listed. Within the proposed structure, there will be eleven (11) core functions of the City that will consolidate and merge nine (9) departments together, and create two (2) new ones. Table 1 below is provided to help illustrate this comparison between what currently exists in the City’s Code with that of the proposed Plan.
Table 1: Comparison of Organizational Plan by Department, Existing and Proposed
Existing Proposed
1) Department of Finance 1) Finance
2) Police Department 2) Police Department
3) Firefighting Department ---
4) Department of Public Information 3) Communications & Engagement
and Community Resources ---
5) Department of Operations ---
6) Department of Streets and Fleet 4) Public Works
7) Department of Utilities 5) Utilities
8) Department of Parks and Recreation 6) Parks & Recreation
9) Department of Development ---
and Redevelopment ---
10) Department of Community Development 7) Community Development
11) Department of Economic Development ---
12) Department of Technology, Innovation 8) Information Technology
and Sustainability ---
13) Department of Administrative Services 9) General Services
14) Health Department and Health Officer ---
10) City Manager’s Office
11) Infrastructure Services
Finally, this new organizational structure includes suggested name changes to a number of departments. It is the City Manager’s experience that a new department name can translate into a renewed sense of identity and purpose for a department team. All current Management Team Members were provided the opportunity to help name their functional area of the City, and the results of those changes are as presented above. There is great excitement internally about these efforts, and staff appreciates Council’s consideration of this Plan.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
The City Manager seeks Council’s favorable affirmation of these structural findings and recommendations through Council’s support and approval of the accompanying Ordinance for a modified and enhanced Organizational Plan.
Attachments:
Ordinance for proposed Organizational Plan
Informational: Organizational Chart that would accompany the Organizational Plan