HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 1812City of Palo Alto (ID # 1812)
City Council Staff Report
Report Type: Action ItemsMeeting Date: 6/20/2011
June 20, 2011 Page 1 of 5
(ID # 1812)
Summary Title: Staffing Flexibility
Title: Policy & Services Committee Recommends the City Council Increase
the Number of Flex Positions in the Table of Organization in the Fiscal Year
2012 Proposed Budget
From:City Manager
Lead Department: Human Resources
Recommendation
Staff and the Policy & Services Committee recommend that the Council increase
the number of flex positions (over-strength positions) in the Table of Organization
in the Fiscal Year 2012 Proposed Budget, from seven to twenty positions.
Background
At its meeting on May 10, the Policy and Services Committee reviewed and
discussed the staff presentation and voted to recommend that Council approve the
staff recommendation to increase the number of “flex” positions in the Fiscal Year
2012 Proposed Budget. At that meeting, the City also considered an Ordinance
amending Chapter 2.28 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code, however staff has since
identified other potential changes for Chapter 2.28 and therefore plans to bring
forward a comprehensive amendment to that section at a future date.
Due to the increase in retirements and other operational impacts occurring over
the last two years, there is an increased need to have flexibility in assigning
staffing resources to accomplish key projects and priorities. Under the Charter
and the Code, the City Manager already has the authority to assign or reassign
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employees to departments as he deems appropriate. However, additional
budgetary requirements significantly restrict the Manager’s ability to actually
make such changes because the code requires that staffing comply with the
budgeted positions listed in the table of organization in the budget.
The City currently has had two methods to add temporary staffing at the
management level: first, it can hire an hourly Management Specialist under the
provisions in the Hourly Compensation Plan limited to 1000 hours.
The second method was approved on April 4, 2011, when the City Council
approved the management compensation plan which included a revision to add
terms for “provisional employment.” A provisional employee hired under this
section would be any management position filled on an “at will” basis for up to
two years. This change gives staff the flexibility to hire positions to assist with
special projects, and/or cover responsibilities while a department considers
organizational structure changes and develops plans to more effectively meet the
City’s needs.
The changes discussed in this report are needed to address the process and
funding necessary to hire a provisional employee when the need arises.
Discussion
Open Flex Positions
At the present time, the City has seven budgeted “flex” positions that may be filled
on a temporary basis to facilitate organizational transitions and succession
planning. They are commonly used in cases of long-term disabilities or
temporarily filling critical vacancies created by retirements or other employee
departures. The existing seven flex positions are regularly fully utilized limiting
the City’s ability to hire provisional employees when needed, and therefore staff
recommends increasing the number of flex positions by thirteen, for a total of
twenty flex positions. These thirteen additional flex positions would be used to
accommodate the newly approved provisional employment program and would
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comply with the City’s procedural rules because the positions would be identified
in the Table of Organization. The salary will be determined in accordance with
an appropriate classification as provided in the Council-approved management
compensation plan which will comply with Article III, section 12 of the Charter
which requires that the Council set all salary scales. Staff plans to utilize existing
position titles in the Table of Organization or another “working title” when
needed, that closely matches the job description when filling these provisional
employment positions. This will allow the City to more effectively recruit talent
that matches the City’s needs.
If it is determined that there is a need to fill a flex position on a permanent basis
beyond the term of the temporary contract appointment, City Council approval
would be necessary for the permanent addition of a full time equivalent position
(FTE).
Available Funding
The funding process for the flex positions is currently somewhat cumbersome.
At the present time, when staff transfers a position between departments, the
expenditures are not properly booked (the costs continue to accumulate in the
department in which the position was originally budgeted). As an example,
suppose a position is transferred from the Administrative Services Department
(ASD) to the City Manager’s Office to work on environmental sustainability
initiatives. The expenditures for this effort will continue to accrue in ASD, even
though the employee is working on a City Manager assignment, and will not be
accurately recorded in the City Manager’s Office towards this Council Priority.
Although it is possible under the current rules to make changes, the process of
obtaining Council approval each time a change is made can limit staff’s ability to
act swiftly to initiate a new program, address shifting priorities, enhance service
delivery, or address a pressing community need that was not anticipated at the
time the annual budget was prepared. To help streamline the process, staff will
implement an administrative policy of holding the formal budget changes until
the mid-year and annual budgets are brought to council. This approach will save
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staff time by consolidating approval of the changes to one report to Council, while
ensuring that staff continues to be accountable for tracking and reporting all fund
transfers between departments.
As mentioned above, staff did discuss potential changes to PAMC Chapter 2.28 at
the Policy and Services committee meeting to further address this issue.
However, several additional potential changes to Chapter 2.28 were identified
following that meeting. Therefore, in lieu of making piecemeal changes, a
proposal for comprehensive amendments to Chapter 2.28 will be brought forward
at a future meeting. In the meantime the mid-year reporting policy will be a
sufficient approach for handling funding for staffing flexibility.
In all of these scenarios, the total General Fund budget authority and the total
number of authorized positions approved with the adoption of the budget would
remain the same.
The benefits associated with the recommended changes include:
·Ability to effectively match staff positions to needs of the organization
·Ability to expeditiously line-up needed resources to effectively manage
workload
·Ability to enable those with the most expert knowledge of the City’s current
needs and requirements to get ordinary and extraordinary work done
·Ability to allocate funding to those departments that need the funding and
associated staffing to do the work
·Ability to align resources (both staff and funding) with the services to be
provided; better alignment of resources with the City’s dynamic workload
requirements
·Ability to match funding and staffing levels in departments to comply with
generally accepted accounting standards and reimbursements from partners
or other governmental agencies.
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·Ability to leverage existing financial resources; ability to use savings generated
in one department for another department where there is a need
In this demanding economic environment, the ability to efficiently respond to
shifting priorities and workloads is critical. The proposed changes give staff the
flexibility to improve its responsiveness to the community.
RESOURCE IMPACT
While staff has requested increase from 7 flex positions to 20 to be added to Table
of Organization in Fiscal Year 12 budget there is no budget impact. Funding for
flex positions will be allocated from any, existing vacant positions (FTEs). Staff
will report use of these positions during mid-year budget and regular budget
processes. If there is a need to create a permanent, regular position, staff will
return to Council for approval.
Policy Implications
These changes are being implemented consistent with City policy.
Attachments:
·Staffing Flexibility, provisional employee description (PDF)
Prepared By:Michele Dallara, Human Resources Assistant
Department Head:Sandra Blanch, Interim Director, Human Resources
Department
City Manager Approval: James Keene, City Manager