HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 333-09City of Palo Alto
City Manager's Report
TO: HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: CITY MANAGER
DATE: AUGUST 3, 2009
REPORT TYPE: Informational
SUBJECT: Span of Control Update
DEPARTMENT: ADMINISTRATIVE
SERVICES·
ClVIR: 333:09
This is an information report and no Council action is required.
BACKGROUND
In recent months the topic of the City's supervisory span of control has come up for discussion
as it relates to managers in the Management and Professional labor group and employees in the
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) labor group. The purpose of this report is to
explain how staff calculates span of control numbers and to provide information on the span of
control relationship between City employees.
DISCUSSION
In April 2004, the City Auditor released a report on the City's span of control, which focused on
managers, supervisors and lead employees across all labor groups in the City organization.
Although methods of calculating span of control ratios vary depending on the exact duties of
employees as noted in our audit response in 2004, staff believes that the appropriate method for
determining span of control in the context of the current discussion is to calculate the ratio of
managers in the Management and Professional to all employees.
As shown in the table below the span of control ratio is 9.33 City employees per manager in the
Management and Professional group. This calculation is based on a snap shot of budgeted
staffing in the City as of July 2009 as reported in the position control system.
CMR:333:09 Page 1 of3
Total Staff
Hourly (less
Managers Professional SEIU Safety Staff Managers) Ratio
Attorney 2 9 0 0 2 11 5.50
Auditor 1 3 0 0 2 5 5.00
Clerk 3 1 3 0 1 5 1.67
Manager 4 4 3 0 2 9 2.25
ASD 19 30 0 8 74 3.89
CSD 18 2 78 0 385 465 25.83
Fire 4 2 4 113 23 142 35.50
HR 2 14 0 0 2 16 8.00
Library 7 1 36 0 47 84 12.00
Plannin 9 2 39 0 5 46 5.11
Police 17 I 62 83 22 168 9.88
PW 41 3 173 0 21 197 4.80
Utilities 29 18 193 0 22 233 8.03
156 90 627 196 542 1455 9.33
The 156 managers from the Management and Professional group shown in the first column are
those who have final approval over hiring and firing, employee performance evaluations,
employee priorities and who oversee daily operations. These managers supervise both regular
and hourly employees in SEIU and other bargaining groups. Department heads reviewed the
number of managers in the Management and Professional group in the spring of 2009. Total
staff of 1,455 includes hourly and limited hourly staff.
RESOURCE IMPACT
This report is informational in nature and does not result in any resource impacts.
CMR:333:09 Page 2 of3
PREPARED BY: [)
DEPARTMENT HEAD APPROV AL:
CITY MANAGER APPROV AL:
CMR:333:09
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Assistant Director, Administrative Services
Director, Administrative Services
JAMES KEENE
City Manager
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