HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/17/2012 Work SessionCity of Springfield
Work Session Meeting
MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
TUESDAY, JANUARY 1.7, 2012
The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth
Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 6:00 p.m., with Mayor Lundberg
presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors Pishioneri, VanGordon, Wylie, Moore, Ralston and
Woodrow. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City
Attorney Matt Cox, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff. .
1. City Prosecution Services.
Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery presented the staff report on this item. To be successful, the
City's continuous process improvement effort required that existing services be examined to determine
if appropriate measurable benchmarks, had been established and that contracts for services were
reviewed for reasonable cost. The Finance /Judiciary Committee was recommending to the full
Council that the current services related to the municipal court and prosecution services undergo such
a review.
In addition to providing Judge and staff time to provide for a municipal court, the City maintained
contracts with outside contractors for the other services. Among these were city prosecution services,
indigent representation, psychiatric evaluations and interpreter services. Prosecution services was a
single provider (Mr. David Logan) while the other three services may have multiple vendors under
contract at the same time. Recent budget activity for these services was a follows:
Prosecution Services
Mental Health Evaluations
Indigent Representation
Interpreter Services
Actual Actual
FY09 FY 10
$2325776 $232,776
$98,246 $136,021
$3,455 $407
Actual
FYI
$245,917
$1,950
$199,279
$5,572
Budget
FY 12
$232,776
$0
$186,000
$6,000
The current contract for prosecution services was a long standing contract that, with the recent opening
of the municipal jail, had seen significant changes in work load and types of activities on which the
city prosecutor and his staff spent their time. For these reasons, the Financial/Judiciary Committee
was recommending that the scope of work for this service be reviewed by staff and be so directed to
prepare a request for proposal.
It had also been considered in recent years to alter the method of providing for indigent representation
services. At this time the Finance /Judiciary Committee was not recommending a change in how the
service providers were selected, but had recommended that staff review the internal methodology of
determining how defendants qualified for representation services and the appointments for multiple
charges.
City of Springfield
Council Work, Session Minutes
January 17, 2012
Page 2
Councilor Moore asked if there had been an increase in indigent services since the jail had been
opened and more people going to trial. She asked if there was a balance in the increase of fines
brought in and the services needed.
Mr. Towery said with the exception of leasing beds to outside agencies, the jail had outdone the
original expectations in terms of revenues. The fines were more than any of the individual costs listed.
He noted that Councilor Pishioneri had asked for some historical reports from the City Prosecutor's
Office and staff was in the process of gathering that information. That information would be shared
with the Council once it was received. The reports would show the workload in the City Prosecutor's
Office before. the jail was opened and since it had opened.
Councilor Pishioneri asked if there had been any anomalies regarding the indigent representation and
any issues regarding the billing of some of the attorneys. He asked if they were following the general
rules of thumb.
Mr. Towery said -the last time he talked with the Court Supervisor Kathy Cunningham, she had said
the Court was generally satisfied with the response from the attorneys who had received the
appointments. There were a couple of attorneys that had sought .indigent appointments that the Court
didn't support. Those attorneys were no longer given appointments. Judge Strickland was satisfied
with the service the Court was getting on indigent services.
Councilor Pishioneri referred to the disbursements from last month and the charges for indigent cases
and interpretive services. The contract for interpretive services stated that the interpreters needed to
follow the ethics of the State Board of Interpreters, but did not require them to be licensed by that
board. He felt the interpreters used by our Court should be licensed and certified.
Mr. Towery said he would follow -up on the interpreter concern. Regarding indigent cases, he noted
that Ms. Cunningham said they tried to balance the work over time. He explained.
Councilor Ralston said someone that was certified might charge more.
Councilor Pishioneri said they should all charge the same.
City Attorney Matt Cox said sometimes the non - certified interpreters did show up and work at the
same rate as those that were certified.
Mayor Lundberg asked what staff needed from the Council.
Council was fine with staff going out for an RFP.
Mr. Towery said it had been many years since the City had gone out for an RFP, and the jail was fairly
new. Staff would want to review the scope of services to make sure it was current and also retain some
outside counsel to go through this process. Because this process may take some time, it may be
necessary to do a month -to -month or extended time contract with the current City Prosecutor. It was
unlikely staff would be able to get through the entire process before Council's summer recess. Staff
would provide Council with timelines and reports on the process.
Councilor Pishioneri agreed it needed to be done right, so going month to month or extending the
contract with the current City Prosecutor was fine. He asked if staff had given any thought about how
they would choose a selection panel of people with expertise for the RFP process.
City of Springfield
Council Work Session Minutes
January 17, 2012
Page 3
Mr. Towery said once a process was mapped out, they could review it with Council during a work
session with some options.
2. Public Works/Development Services Reorganization.
Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery presented the staff report on this item. Last spring; in addition to
the departures of Susie Smith, Public Works Director and Bill Grile, Development Services Director,
several other employees chose to take advantage of the voluntary separation program, to retire or to
pursue opportunities for professional advancement. Those vacancies created opportunity and
uncertainty as well as impacts on workloads and service levels around the organization.
In the interim, -the City Manager asked for an exploration of the structure of both departments.
Together and separately, the City Manager and Assistant City Manager ' met with most of the work
groups and individuals before making any decision on a work approach. Ultimately, a facilitated
process, using several group listening sessions and one -on -one interviews with internal and external
stakeholders was used to solicit input from all of the employees in both departments. From there, a
representative work group was assigned to address four major questions:
• What does the New Organization LOOK like? (One Department)
• What does the New Organization LOOK like? (Two Departments).
• What does the New Organization ACT like?
• What does the New Organization Deliver?
After the resulting work was presented to employees and the Executive Team, the City Manager
decided to implement a single department structure with five divisions. Director recruitment would
occur soon, expecting an appointment by mid - March. An implementation team would be appointed to
review and make recommendations related to detailed organizational structure, reporting relationships,
work assignments and locations. Recommendations may be implemented before or after Director
appointment.
Mr. Towery presented a power point presentation on this item. Many people had been engaged in this
process and he appreciated all of their work. He noted that Raquel Wells from the City of Eugene
facilitated this process and did an outstanding job. She was assisted by Library Director Rob Everett
and Police Analyst Mike Harman. He noted other staff that were instrumental in this process.
The goal of this process was to break down silos, improve communication, and come up with a
working team approach. He discussed the issues that were addressed through the interviews and the
process. A large number of staff took the opportunity to attend inforums, staff meetings and were kept
up to date.through a newsletter.
Mr. Towery noted that four task teams were convened. Task Team A 1 came up with a proposal to
have a single department with five divisions. He displayed a slide of what one department with five
divisions could look like. The five divisions included administrative, capital program, development
division, environmental services division, and operational division. Another task team determined
what the department would act like. They came up with the following recommendations:
• Recommendation #I — Be "real" about the intent of changes in the organizational culture.
• Recommendation #2 — Develop a tool kit
City of Springfield
Council Work Session Minutes
January 17, 2012
Page 4
• Training & Coaching
• Communication
• Ease Restrictions
• Authority Check In
• Evaluation & Knowledge Sharing
• Creating Flexible Work
• Recommendation #3 — Assess the quality of working Teams to identify what is and is not
working and implement improvements.
• Recommendation #4 — Utilize a "Team Coach" from the start of a Team formation for
guidance and assistance.
• Recommendation #5 - It is OK to immediately begin Team assessments, discussions and
improvements.
• Recommendation #6 - Supervisors seek performance feedback from-other supervisors, peers,
customers, and team members.
Mr. Towery discussed what the new organization would deliver. He noted that the team identified the
factors used when work was prioritized, most of which was done already. The team also identified the
skills, talents and abilities of a leader that would support this organization and the goals for service
delivery. The characteristics the group identified for a leader were:
• Provide balanced knowledge of department business lines
• Provide confidence in decisions made
• Ability to delegate (trust decisions of staff)
• Focus on needs of the City
• Empower staff (provide protection from external forces)
• Ability to deal with personnel challenges .
• Politically astute and savvy
• Flexible, consistent and fair
Mr. Towery said staff had been at this for about 10 months and an implementation team would soon
be launched. He displayed the* schedule in the power point and said that by mid -to -late February they
hoped to have a set of recommendations to provide enough clarity about the structure of the
department to discuss with prospective applicants for the director's position. The posting for the
director position would be open in January. Division managers and supervisors would be recruited for
over the course of this month. Some divisions looked similar to what was already in place, while
others were not. They could be looking for. existing incumbent or temporary assignments for career
development. Depending on who filled those positions, additional appointments may need to be made.
The City hoped to appoint a director by Mid - March.
Mr. Towery said the existing budget assumed a $300,000 budget, reduction from the FYI 1 level, and
they were confident they would reach that mark. The FYI 3 proposed budget would balance within
current projections city -wide. The budget process would be unusual going from two separate
departments to one department. He explained further. There were about 15 vacancies in both
departments; some funded and others not.
Councilor Ralston said this was interesting. He asked if there was a title for this or an existing
program.
City of Springfield
Council Work Session Minutes
January 17, 2012
Page 5
Mr. Towery said much of this work was very consistent with'Continuous Process Improvement. Some
of it also came out of the High Performance Organization movement. Neither w,
ere the drivers, but
were used to inform much of the work.
Councilor Ralston said he did not see efficiencies in the list of things they wanted to see. He didn't
want to see a decrease in staff and increased workload.
Mr. Towery said efficiency did come up and was part of the complete document, but was not
presented in the power point. There was a lot of discussion about being efficient and effective. The
employees understood operating within our means.
Councilor Pishioneri said he was impressed with all of the work done. He recognized that this process
took a catalytic leader, a leader who trusted their staff. To fail to do so could bring failure or lowering
of efficiencies. This was a great measurement. He spoke regarding career development and noted that
sometimes when career development training was offered to some but not others, it caused a divide. It
was important that career development was not focused on specific individuals. There were people that
wanted to go to training, but didn't want to ask.
Mr. Towery said early in this process the assembled management team of the two departments and the
union representatives discussed organizational development and team work. One of the things that
came out of this was that when they reconvened the task team, they needed to have the right people
involved. Sometimes the same people were chosen for these types of teams, but this process had also
included people that were not usually involved. They were chosen because they helped to fill in one or
more of the areas that were critical for a team. Every level of employee was represented through this
process. Those people then served as ambassadors back to their departments. Many people that were
involved were in the audience during tonight's work session.
Councilor Woodrow asked if they could put the results of their experience into the tool kit.
Mr. Towery said this tool kit was specifically about how to effectively build and maintain these types
of teams. This would not just be used by this new department, but across the organization.
Councilor VanGordon asked about the general feeling of staff regarding this process.
Mr. Towery .said there was ambivalence, fear and anticipation in moving through this process. There
was more understanding about this process, but there would be some that had fear. These types of
things needed to be worked through as they moved along.
Councilor VanGordon asked if there was a check -in date as they looked forward to implementation.
Mr. Towery said that had not yet been scheduled, but one of the things that came out of the process
was to come back and check in with staff.
Councilor VanGordon said this could be very successful if the staff-felt empowered. They were going
from two tight knit departments to one large department. He asked about the number of vacancies in
the departments.
Mr: Towery said filling the positions that were vacant would not increase the number of employees
that the City already had this year. That was independent from this process, although did influence the
effort. They didn't go into the process determined to reduce staffing by a certain amount.
City of Springfield
Council Work Session Minutes
January 17, 2012
Page 6
Councilor VanGordon asked what the overall savings would be for the City going to one,department.
Mr. Towery said that was difficult to say. They had estimated about $300,000, but more details were
needed. They could report that to Council.
Councilor VanGordon said this was great work. He understood it was hard work, but showed the
dedication of our staff.
DeeDee Thomas, Administrative Assistant in the Public Works Department, provided an example of
efficiencies. Development Services Department had two people in administrative support, and Public
Works had four. Those six employees had come together to discuss job duties -and how they could
share in their responsibilities to get the work done with less resources.
Councilor Wylie said it was very well done and was quite sophisticated. She was very impressed with
the in -house effort. We didn't always know what we could accomplish until going through the process
of learning what had already been done. They had put together fantastic teams and she could see how
they were building on what they were learning. She projected more efficiencies would show up as they
moved forward. Many forms of government were looking for new ways to do business and from that
came excellence. That's what she saw in this project. The outcome was excellence.
Councilor Woodrow said she was appreciative of staff trying to allay the fears of the employees
through open communication. That impressed her, as well as the process. She appreciated the
openness.
Mayor Lundberg commended staff for their work. The recipients of this work would be the public and
the community. She had seen an attitude to operate as if we were in competition for our community's
business and everyone had bought into doing that. It was most appreciated. She asked Mr. Towery to
pass along the Mayor and Council's gratitude to the participants and staff.
Mr. Grimaldi thanked Mr. Towery for his leadership and the team for all of their work.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 6:51 p.m.
Minutes Recorder — Amy Sowa
Christine L. Lundberg
Mayor
Attest:
Amy Sov
City Recorder