TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: Jill Keimach, Town Manager
DATE: December 5, 2019
CONTACT:
Staff Contact Jill Keimach, Town Manager (480) 348-3533
End
AGENDA TITLE:
Title
Overview of New Functional Organizational Chart and Reporting Structure, Changing Finance and IT Divisions to Departments, Requesting a Change in Authorized Positions From a Deputy Town Manager Position to an Entry Level Planner, Promotion of Community Development Director and Reclassifications of Existing Planning Staff; and Extending the Option of an Alternative Work Schedule to All Staff
Body
BACKGROUND:
Organizational Structure
In reflecting on the Town of Paradise Valley’s long history and strong expressed values of limited government and in reviewing organizational structures that have been used previously in the Town of Paradise Valley, the attached functional organizational structure with a new reporting structure has been implemented by the Town Manager.
The new structure:
1. Combines the Engineering Department within Community Development;
2. Establishes the Community Development Director as the lead of the newly combined department that includes Planning, Building/Inspection and Engineering;
3. Adds reporting relationships with Community Development, Public Works and the Post Office to the Town Manager;
4. Changes two divisions, Finance and IT, previously under the management of a Deputy Town Manager into departments directly reporting to the Town Manager; and
5. Retains the authority, breadth, and responsibility of all department (and former division) heads.
Personnel Changes
The organizational changes are a result of a desire to exchange an upper management position for a lower level position in an effort to provide additional customer service where needed most. With the change in Community Development, Engineering, and Building/Inspection, the focus is intended to increase the Town’s response and transparency with applicants by having the routine calculations and analysis completed by an entry level planner, rather than using higher level management (such as the Community Development Director) to fill in as needed to calculate Floor Area Ratios and other more routine calculations and applications. Oversight and quality control would remain the responsibility of the Director and the day-to-day planning operations would become the responsibility of the Planning Manager.
Although the current number of budgeted positions is unchanged and has not exceeded the authorized number of employees in 2008/9, the Town during this past decade, has:
1. converted a Police Department that was using clipboards and paper in 2013 to extensive new technology available to law enforcement to enhance efficiencies and transparency, including mobile data terminals in units, License Plate Readers in vehicles and stationary, cameras in vehicles and worn by each officer, digital ticketing and fingerprinting, and mobile CAD with GIS to assist in quickly locating an address. Using technology and finding partners to host substations has allowed officers to remain in the field, reducing response times by over two minutes, maximizing officer visibility and increasing officer-initiated enforcement activity by over 250%;
2. increased the positions in IT to respond to the new technology in Police and strategically respond to the critical need to upgrade the Town’s technology after a decade of only maintaining unique systems that were in disrepair and becoming obsolete;
3. added technical engineering expertise to respond to and enforce new hillside regulations, storm water natural flows, and right-of-way review;
4. processed 278% more complex SUPs, minor and major amendments, and subdivisions, in response to a strong economy;
5. added a new counterperson/Town receptionist for Public Works when building was opened to the public;
6. provided every department and functional area with specific software to process information, including data and contract management and storage, technology in video streaming for public transparency, permit processing and scheduling software, and a GIS infrastructure database; and
7. added dispatchers to effectively respond to a nearly 100% increase in police dispatch calls and residential alarm monitoring by maintaining a high level of customer service and regularly meeting industry standards in the speed to answer those calls.
Alternative Work Schedule
Longer shifts/fewer days
Alternative schedules permit greater flexibility by enabling employees to work longer shifts on a fewer number of workdays and provide related benefits such as decreased commuting time and costs. The total number of work hours would retain staff’s 40-hour workweek, although it would require management to focus more on work product and efficiencies. Alternative schedules also permit nonexempt employees to work more than eight hours in a day without incurring daily overtime.
Common examples of alternative workweek schedules are the 4/10 (employees work four 10-hour days in a 4-day workweek) or the 9/80 (employees work 80 hours in nine days over two workweeks). The impetus for proposing an alternative workweek schedule for the Town of Paradise Valley is based on requests from Town employees, but also allows for enhanced customer service by keeping the Town Offices open to the public for an additional hour a day Monday through Thursday (with Friday open eight hours) so residents and contractors can obtain permits, pay bills, and mail packages up until 5 p.m This 9/80 work schedule includes eight nine-hour work days and one eight-hour work day per two-week pay period. A 4/10 workweek would keep the offices open to the public an additional 2 hours from 7 am to 6 pm with an hour lunch, Monday through Thursday.
Although Police and Fire service must be 24/7, the shifts of employees can and has varied in Paradise Valley. The Chief altered work hours in recent years to 4/10 schedules for detectives, command staff, dispatch and administrative staff. Police administration staff are off on Fridays while command staff and investigators alternate Fridays to ensure coverage. The Police Dispatch window is open 24/7 for face to face contact with the public. Similarly, the Courts changed their workweek to a 4/10 which closed the Court every Friday. Public Works staff also work 4/10s with every Friday off, except when called in due to weather or other Town need. Some engineering and finance staff stagger days off in order to keep public offices open to the public but respond to long commutes by employees. Generally, however, employees that work in the Town Hall have not been able to have flexible work hours that would eliminate the need for an employee to commute five days a week, unless by exception.
A survey of Arizona jurisdictions that have alternative workweeks indicates, as shown on the table below, that the most common schedule is a 4/10 workweek, with only one community, Yuma, using a 9/80 workweek. Yuma closes every other Friday. Other jurisdictions require some departments that have critical public hours five days a week while the other functions are closed every Friday. Most require Police, Fire, Library and Parks and Recreation to be open on Friday. Paradise Valley does not have Libraries and Parks and Recreation facilities that need to be staffed five days a week. Fire, contracted through the City of Phoenix, is similar to Police in that it must always provide 24/7 service, regardless on the length of each employee’s shift.
|
|
Monday - Thursday Hours |
|
City/Town |
Alternative Schedule |
Depts Open on Friday |
|
Apache Junction |
4/10 |
Police, Fire, Library, Parks & Rec |
|
Avondale |
4/10 |
Police, Fire, Library, Parks & Rec |
|
Buckeye |
4/10 |
Police, Fire, Library, Parks & Rec |
|
Cave Creek |
4/10 |
None |
|
Chino Valley |
4/10 |
Police, Library |
|
Fountain Hills |
4/10 |
Community Center, Parks |
|
Gilbert |
4/10 |
Police, Fire, Library, Community Center |
|
Maricopa |
4/10 |
Police, Fire, Recreation Complex |
|
Mesa |
4/10 |
Police, Fire, Library, Parks & Rec |
|
Page |
4/10 |
Police, Fire |
|
Peoria |
4/10 |
Police, Fire, Library, Parks & Rec |
|
Queen Creek |
4/10 |
Police, Fire, Utilities, Grounds Maintenance |
|
Sedona |
4/10 |
Police, Fire, Code Enforcement, Public Works, Parks & Rec |
|
Wickenburg |
4/10 |
Police, Fire |
|
Yuma (alternate Fridays) |
9/80 |
Police, Fire, Library, Parks & Rec |
Unique to Paradise Valley is our Post Office in the Town Hall. Previously, the contract with the US Postal Service did not allow for the office to be closed Monday through Friday. The contract was updated in 2015 and again in June 2017, allowing for amendments to the specified office hours in the contract. Office hours of satellite Post Offices vary, as do the number of customers by day of week. Since mid-October, the highest number of customers visiting the Post Office are on Mondays, with the Tuesday after a holiday consistently the highest. Fridays often have the least number of customers, but not always.
In speaking directly with staff and the department heads, a number of key positions have previously expressed a desire to work the shorter five-day schedule, including the Town’s two building inspectors. The responsibility of each Department Head in approving an alternative work schedule will be to ensure coverage is maintained as needed to serve the public.
Efficiencies/Productivity/Customer Access
A growing number of smaller companies and public-sector organizations are adopting a four-day work week as a way to attract and retain staff, especially in light of having the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years.
Even large companies, like Microsoft, introduced a program this past summer in Japan called the "Work Life Choice Challenge," which shut down its offices every Friday in August and gave all employees an extra day off each week. Although a 4/10 schedule is not the recommendation to Council, this study indicated a 40% increase in productivity in Japan, measured by number of units sold.
<https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/11/04/tech/microsoft-japan-workweek-productivity/index.html>
With the Town’s new phone system, calls into the Town Hall can be redirected to staff cell phones, especially for Department Directors who will continue to be expected to be reachable every day, including on Fridays. This technology, while beneficial, does not replace the extrinsic benefit of talking to a resident or customer in person.
Schedule Recommendation
The Town Manager believes the best alternative schedule for the Town Hall staff is to provide staff with the option to stagger a 9/80 workweek where an employee would work eight nine-hour work days and one eight-hour work day every two weeks with the following expectations:
1. Each new department adding this option would ensure coverage on Fridays
2. Salaried employees would be reachable by phone on their ‘off-Fridays’
3. If and when the Town required additional assistance on a particular Friday, the employee would endeavor to assist in having additional coverage when needed
4. All Post Office staff would work on high volume peak periods during the holidays and tax day, for example.
BUDGET IMPACT:
These recommended position changes net an annualized budget savings of $83,125:
1. Eliminate one vacant Deputy Town Manager position;
2. Create one new entry level Planner position;
3. Grade change the filled Community Development Director position from 82 to 83;
4. Reclassify one filled Planner to Senior Planner; and
5. Reclassify one filled Senior Planner to Planning Manager.
RECOMMENDATION:
To:
1. accept the new functional organizational and reporting structure;
2. formally adopt recommended position changes; and
3. approve a pilot 9/80 staggered workweek to allow employees to have the option of every other Friday or other day off, yet keep the Town Hall offices open every work day, Monday through Friday.
It is further recommended staff return to Council with a draft resolution and any necessary code changes (i.e. signing authority code changes) for adoption by the Council.
ATTACHMENTS:
PowerPoint