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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06723"As Amended" ORDINANCE NO. 6723 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE CITY OF PUEBLO 2001 BUDGET BY ELIMINATING, CREATING AND TRANSFERRING POSITIONS IN THE CLASSIFIED SERVICE AND MAKING INTERDEPARTMENTAL TRANSFERS OF PREVIOUSLY APPROPRIATED FUNDS RELATING THERETO WHEREAS, the City Manager's 2001 administrative reorganization involves the creation, elimination and transfer of various positions in the classified service; and WHEREAS, such changes require amendment of the City of Pueblo 2001 budget; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF PUEBLO, that Ordinance No. 6607, which created and approved the City of Pueblo 2001 budget and appropriations therefor is hereby amended as follows: SECTION 1 The 2001 budget for the Department of Animal Control is amended as follows: a) The position of Director of the Department of Animal Control is hereby abolished. b) The position of Administrative Technician in the Department of Animal Control is hereby abolished. c) Two (2) positions of Senior Animal Control Officer are transferred from the Department of Animal Control to the Pueblo Police Department in the 2001 budget. d) Five (5) positions of Animal Control Officer are transferred from the Department of Animal Control to the Pueblo Police Department in the 2001 budget. 1 SECTION 2. The 2001 budget for the Department of Zoning is hereby amended as follows: a) Two (2) positions of Zoning Investigator are renamed Code Enforcement Officer and are transferred to the Pueblo Police Department in the 2001 budget. b) Three (3) positions for temporary employees performing code enforcement functions are transferred to the Pueblo Police Department in the 2001 budget. SECTION 3. The 2001 budget for the Pueblo Police Department is hereby amended as follows: a) One (1) position in the civil service class of Animal Control Supervisor is hereby created. b) Two (2) positions in the civil service class of Emergency Services Dispatcher are hereby created. c) Two (2) positions of Senior Animal Control Officer are hereby added to the Pueblo Police Department as transfers from the Department of Animal Control in the 2001 budget. d) Five (5) positions of Animal Control Officer are hereby added to the Pueblo Police Department as transfers from the Department of Animal Control in the 2001 budget. e) Two (2) positions of Code Enforcement Officer are hereby added to the Pueblo Police Department as transfers from the Department of Zoning in the 2001 budget. 0 Three (3) positions for temporary employees performing code enforcement functions are hereby added to the Pueblo Police Department as transfers from the Department of Zoning in the 2001 budget. SECTION 4. All monies remaining in the 2001 budget for the Department of Animal Control which are related to the positions abolished or transferred to the Pueblo Police Department are hereby transferred to the 2001 budget for the Pueblo Police Department. SECTION 5. All other monies remaining in the 2001 budget for the Department of Animal Control are hereby transferred to the 2001 budget for the Pueblo Police Department. SECTION 6. All monies remaining in the 2001 budget for the Department of Zoning which are related to the positions transferred to the Pueblo Police Department are hereby transferred to the 2001 budget for the Pueblo Police Department. SECTION 7. This ordinance shall become effective October 1, 2001. INTRODUCED: July 23, 2001 ATTESTED B PASSED AND APPROVED: August 27, 2001 3 Lee R. Evett p ED City Manager avid J. Galli Assistant City Manager MEMORANDUM TO: President & Members of City Council FROM: Lee R. Evett, City Manager DATE: July 16, 2001 SUBJECT: Agenda Item —Staff Reorganization -1 One City Hall Place Pueblo, Colorado 81003 Phone (719) 584 -0800 Fax (719) 584 -0850 Attached hereto is an ordinance accomplishing much of the reorganizational changes we have discussed over the last several months. I have also attached for your information organizational charts which will highlight those changes which are either incorporated in the ordinance or will take place administratively. For your information, I present the following background and/or action and recommendations as follows: REORGANIZATION ➢ As of January 1, 2001, there were 17 department directors, a general manager of the Pueblo Transit Company, and five assistant city managers (not including Dave Galli) reporting to the City Manager. After carefully reviewing the functions of these departments and the positions involved, the following changes are recommended to Council. Some, such as the change in Fiscal Operations, have already occurred. The recommended ordinance accomplishes these changes. In addition, this background paper will provide Council with a full overview of the new organization. The new organization -wide structure is provided as an attachment along with separate diagrams of individual department changes. The new organizational structure reduces the number of individuals reporting directly to the City Manager from 23 to 15. After the Animal Shelter was privatized, the only remaining City personnel were the Director, Administrative Technician, and Animal Control Officers with enforcement President & Members of City Council July 16, 2001 Page 2 responsibilities. This unit is being placed in the Police Department. The Department is being abolished along with the Director position. A new position of Animal Control Supervisor is being placed in the budget with the same salary as that of the Communications Supervisor. This action significantly reduces the salary ($200 per month) for this position. As these positions are being placed in the Police Department, there is no need for the Administrative Technician position. Instead, Police Dispatch will assume many of these duties. To alleviate the current critical shortage of Emergency Service Dispatchers, two additional positions are being placed in the Police Department budget in lieu of the Administrative Technician position. ➢ A new position of Assistant City Manager for Community Development is being created. This individual (Jim Munch) will assume the responsibility for both the Planning and Zoning functions. This will provide for increased coordination and eliminate confusion. Cathy Green, currently Assistant City Manager for Planning will assume the duties of Director of Planning, and a new Zoning Director with a strong background in planning and land use will be hired. Both will report to the Assistant City Manager for Community Development. The title of Assistant City Manager for Planning will be eliminated. ➢ The Director of Zoning was expected to perform both the planning functions of the Zoning Department and routine code enforcement duties including the supervision of two full -time and three part-time code enforcers (Zoning Investigators). These Zoning Investigators are being transferred to the Police Department. The new Zoning Director will be able to fully concentrate on planning -type responsibilities. ➢ The current Director of Zoning will be transferred to the newly created position of Assistant City Manager for Contract Services. The City currently lacks a centralized contract review and administration function. ➢ The current duties of the Director of Transportation will be performed by an Assistant City Manager for Transportation (title change only). Both the Director of Aviation and the Manager of the Pueblo Transit Company will now report to this position. The Transit Manager will report through this position to the Board of Directors of the Transit Company. ➢ The Assistant City Manager /Ice Arena position will become the Ice Arena Supervisor position in Civil Service. The salary will remain the same. ➢ The Civil Service Administrator (Steve Bolton) will become the Deputy Director of Human Resources for Civil Service Operations. Beth Vega will continue to be the Director of Human Resources. President & Members of City Council July 16, 2001 Page 3 ➢ The Fiscal Operations reorganization has structurally been accomplished. Purchasing will remain a separate department (by Charter); however, it will report to the Assistant City Manager for Fiscal Operations. This will complete the major portion of the reorganization. It is anticipated that final phases of the reorganization will be accomplished in the 2002 budget. CITY OF PUEBLO OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY MEMORANDUM TO: City Council members FROM: john Scorgie Ass't City Attorney DATE: August 16, 2001 RE: Letter addressed to Councilman Gurule from PAGE attorney This memorandum is written in reply to the letter dated August 7, 2001 addressed to Councilman Gurule from Atty. Nicholas Gradisar on behalf of the Pueblo Association of Government Employees which objects to implementation of the City Manager's Reorganization Plan on the grounds that it abolishes the Department of Personnel, creates a Department of Human Resources, and places the Deputy Director of Human Resources / Civil Service Operations under the supervision of the Director of Human Resources. The letter specifically states that "The Pueblo Association of Government Employees believes that this Reorganizational (sic) Plan is fundamentally flawed." The letter then goes on to characterize the flaws in the plan as follows: "it appears to abolish the Department of Personnel, in violation of Article 3, Section 12, of the Charter of the City of Pueblo, which provides that the City Council may not discontinue any Department established by the Charter.... " The Department which is abolished by the Reorganization Plan is the Department of Animal Control, not the Department of Personnel. The Department of Personnel continues to exist as created by the City Charter, but has been renamed the Department of Human Resources by Ordinance passed by the City Council some time ago. The next asserted flaw in the Plan is that placing those classified service employees presently assigned as staff to the Civil Service Commission under supervision of the Director of Human Resources creates a conflict because "The Civil Service Commission also hears appeals from classification, reclassocation, and allocation of positions. The Director of Personnel is the one who classifies, reclassifies, and allocates positions and the Civil Service Commission and, arguably, its employees, are charged with reviewing those decisions. " Various sections of Title VI of the Code of Ordinances provide that classification, reclassification and allocation of positions can be done only with approval of the City Manager. The Director of Personnel does not have independent authority to take any of these actions. The statement that employees assigned as staff to the Civil Service Commission are charged with reviewing decisions of the Director of Personnel is clearly erroneous. Neither the City Charter nor the Code of Ordinances give any authority to the classified service employees assigned as staff to the Civil Service Commission to review any decisions made by the Director of Personnel or any other City Department Director. Under the City Charter and Code of Ordinances, all Department Directors are answerable to the City Manager, and not to the classified service employees assigned as staff to the Civil Service Commission. Section 4 -5 f. of the Charter of the City of Pueblo provides that the City Manager shall exercise supervision and control over all executive and administrative departments and agencies created herein or that may be hereafter created by the Council. The PAGE union apparently believes that the classified employees assigned as staff to the Civil Service Commission are exempt from supervision by the City Manager. The letter goes on to allege that confidential employment records maintained by the Commission will be combined with confidential Personnel records and that "Combining these records and allowing employees to have access to each other's records would greatly impair the independence of the Civil Service Commission ". This allegation by the PAGE union is groundless, since nothing in the Reorganization Plan changes any of the established procedures relating to confidential employment records. N Civil Service Rule 5 makes a clear distinction between those records which are maintained by the Civil Service Commission and all other City employee personnel records, which are maintained by the Director of Personnel (now Human Resources). Insofar as confidential Commission records are involved, Civil Service Rule 5 provides that no such records shall be removed from the office or otherwise accessed except by express permission of the Commission. Insofar as other confidential City employee personnel records are involved, Civil Service Rule 5 provides that no such records shall be removed from the office or otherwise accessed except by express permission of the Director of Personnel (now Human Resources). Because many employment records, whether kept by the Civil Service Commission or by the Director of Personnel, are "public records" under provisions of Colorado state law, Civil Service Rule 5 also provides that "Inspection of such records shall be regulated as otherwise provided by law ". This provision is in recognition that most of the law concerning access to public records is found in Title 24 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. The above procedures under Civil Service Rule 5 have been in place since 1986 without significant problems. In any event, these procedures are not changed by the Reorganization Plan. The PAGE union goes on to allege that the "the employees in the Civil Service Office would be placed in a position of being supervised by the individual they have the duty to investigate." Under Section 8 -4 of the City Charter, it is the duty of the Civil Service Commission to investigate any or all matters relating to conditions of employment in the City and to make at least annually a report of its findings to the Council. Nowhere in the City Charter or the Code of Ordinances is there any indication that classified service employees assigned as staff of the Civil Service Commission have any "duty to investigate" either the Director of Personnel or the Director of any other City Department. In this allegation, the PAGE union confuses the duties of the Civil Service Commission set out by City Charter with the duties of the classified employees who are assigned to the Commission. 3 The PAGE union letter concludes "It appears to be the clear intent of the citizens of Pueblo that the Civil Service Commission, which is elected directly by them, should be independent of the City, which independence is seriously compromised if its employees are supervised by the Director of Personnel. " This statement evidences a basic misunderstanding of the City Charter and the place of the Civil Service Commission in the structure of City government. An unbiased and careful reading of the Charter clearly establishes that the Civil Service Commission is not an autonomous body independent of the City Council or administration. The City of Pueblo Civil Service Commission was created, and its duties are set out and limited, in City Charter Article 8 Personnel Administration. Article 8 begins in Section 8 -1 by creating the Department of Personnel and providing for a Director to be appointed on the basis of background in personnel administration. Section 8 -2 provides that the Director of Personnel and the Civil Service Commission shall have authority and be required to prepare and recommend to the City Council, through the City Manager, such rules as may be considered necessary, appropriate, or desirable to carry out the provision of this Article and perform such other duties as may be required by this Charter, by ordinance, or by the City Manager. Section 8 -3 creates a Civil Service Commission of three members to be elected for six year terms, who shall operate under such rules of procedure as established by the City Council. Section 8 -4 sets out the duties and powers of the Civil Service Commission, but provides that the exercise of such duties shall be in compliance with rules established by the Council. It is noteworthy that the City Charter specifically states that the duties of the Civil Service Commission are to be performed in compliance with rules established by the City Council. El In addition, Section 8 -2 provides that both the Director of Personnel and the Civil Service Commission shall perform such other duties as may be required by this Charter, by ordinance, or by the City Manager. The clear intent of the provisions of Article 8 of the City Charter was that the Civil Service Commission and the Director of Personnel would work together to carry out the provisions of that Article. The status of the classified employees assigned as staff to the Civil Service Commission is an anomaly since they are not under the supervision of any department head. The Civil Service Commission is not authorized to supervise any City employee and it would be inconsistent with the purpose and intent of the Charter for the Civil Service Commission to take any direct action adversely affecting such employees which may be subject to appeal and hearing before the Civil Service Commission. Arguably, they are under the direct supervision of the City Manager which is also inconsistent with the concept embodied in the Charter that all classified employees be assigned to a department under the supervision of a department head, or in some instances under the supervision of an Assistant City Manager. The Reorganization Plan simply clarifies the status of classified employees assigned as staff to the Civil Service Commission and places them in the Department of Human Resources under the supervision of the Director of Human Resources. Placing these employees in the Department of Human Resources does not modify their employment duties or function and does not conflict with the Charter or the language or import of Civil Service Rule 4. Rule 4. Commission staff, duties. (a) The Commission staff shall consist of such full -time positions in such classes, and such unclassified appointments as may be recommended by the Commission and approved by the City Manager and City Council. All permanent Commission staff shall be members of the classified service. (b) A staff member or members shall be designated by the Commission to compile and maintain all Commission records, serve as secretary and clerk to the Commission, process applications, develop, conduct and score examinations, maintain eligible lists and perform all other lawful duties assigned by the Commission. (Ord. No. 3781, I1- 26 -73; Ord. No. 5350,10-14-86) 5 The City Manager has indicated on several occasions that he is well aware of the unique function of the Civil Service Commission in the administration of the City of Pueblo, and that his Reorganization Plan is not intended to change that function. In summary, the PAGE union letter does not state any grounds on which the City Manager's Reorganization Plan should be rejected either on a legal or pragmatic basis.