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Exh 8CAGENDA ITEM #8C MAY 14, 20001 CITY OF ATLANTIC BEACH CITY COMMISSION MEETING STAFF REPORT AGENDA ITEM: Public Works Positions SUBMITTED BY: Jim Hanson, Cif DATE: May 7, 2001 BACKGROUND: A report was provided to the Mayor and Commission at the last regulaz Meeting in April outlining the decisions made to prioritize various projects for the upcoming year and to recommend some changes in staffing in the Public Works Department which would increase the City's capacity to accomplish those projects. The transmittal memo (copy attached) recommended several changes in the Public Works Department as follows; 1) Authorize the hiring of a Technical Designer with an estimated annual salary and benefits cost of $50,000 2) Authorize part-time clerical help with an estimated annual cost of $11,000 3) Approve in concept the use of ongoing contracts for engineering services and set a cap amount for projects to be accomplished through those contracts After additional discussion with the Public Works staff, it is recommended that the Commission set a maximum amount for both the size of projects and engineering amounts that can be covered under the ongoing contracts. We recommend that the total amount of the job not exceed $300,000 and that the engineering cost for each project not exceed $30,000. Because the maximum amount that is approved for City Manager's authorization is $10,000, all engineering projects above that amount will be brought to the Commission for approval. If approved by the Commission, this change in procedure will save top staff a considerable amount of time by not preparing sepazate scopes and obtaining. proposals for multiple consultants for jobs costing less than $30,000. If the Commission approves this recommendation in concept, then a request for services would AGENDA ITEM #8C MAY 14, 20001 be sent out with consultants submitting proposals as they have done in the past. Once the generic contracts are approved by the Commission, the smaller jobs would be handled under those contracts in the future. RECOMMENDATION: 1) Approve the immediate hiring of a Technical Designer at an annual estimated cost of $50,000 2) Approve the immediate hiring of a part-time Secretary to provide clerical support in Public Works for an estimated annual cost of $11,000 3) Authorize the preparation of a request for proposals for general engineering services for projects not to exceed $300,000 in total or $30,000 in engineering costs BUDGET: Annual cost for salary and benefits are expected to increase by $61,000. The proposal for generic engineering contracts is not expected to increase the City's annual cost. Funds for the engineering services are akeady budgeted with each project. ATTACHMENT: Transmittal Memo dated AprIl 23, 2001 entitled Strategic Action Plan Report AGENDA ITEM #8C MAY 14, 20001 Apri123, 2001 MEMORANDUM To: Mayor and Commission From: Jim Subject: Strategic Action Plan Attached for your review and comment is a copy of the City's Strategic Action Plan Report for the upcoming yeaz. This report results from the priorities and objectives set by the Mayor and Commission at the second Strategic Planning Meeting on March 31, 2001. Also attached is a copy of the items submitted by our Facilitator, Marilyn Crotty. The Strategic Action Plan Report includes the top 14 objectives selected by the City Commission with action steps for the accomplishment of most. Some of the objectives do not have action steps yet, but they will be spelled out in future reports. There aze more top priorities than in the past yeaz. The top 14 objectives received either 3 or 4 votes during the Commission's prioritization. Additionally, at least a couple of the objectives that only received 2 votes (such as the Wastewater Reuse Study and the Pic-n-Save Community Center) ate ongoing projects which will undoubtedly take staff time incoming months. It is clear that the City does not have enough top staff in place to make all the progress that we would like in each of these during the coming year. The City will either have to reprioritize to eliminate some of the objectives, reorganize the responsibilities of existing staff members, add some key staff or some combination of all three alternatives. It is also cleaz that the lion's shaze of the responsibility for completion of the action steps resides in the Public Works Department. Bob Kosoy and Donna Kaluzniak are listed as "owners" of all or portions of 7 of the 14 objectives listed herein. This memo is also to recommend some changes to the organizational structure of the Public Works Department. First, an in-house Technical. Designer should be hired to provide additional capacity for project design and management. This position would be particulazly useful in expediting the prepazation of " documents for smaller jobs where the bidding and negotiation with consultants in the past has taken a lazge amount of time and energy. It is expected that this new position would save the City money from having to pay outside consultants to do many of the jobs. The estimated salary and benefits for a technical designer would total to $50,000/year. Modifications aze also recommended to the role of the Utility and Public Works Directors. I intend to restructure the Utility Director's job to be a full Department Head reporting to the City Manager. That Director will hereafter be responsible for not only the daily operations of the water and sewer systems, but also all construction projects and any other duties related to those systems. Heretofore, the responsibility for construction project management has remained with AGENDA ITEM #8C MAY 14, 20001 the Public Works Director. Similarly, the Public Works Director will have his job refocused to include the responsibilities for streets, storm water, sanitation and fleet maintenance. A third recommendation for streamlining and increasing the ability of the Public Works and Utility Departments wIll be to change the current method of procurement for engineering services. The solicitation ofproposals, evaluation, selection and negotiation with consultants for every job takes up an inordinate amount of administration time. While warranted for the larger projects, such an elaborate process is considered by many other cities to be unnecessazy for smaller jobs. We propose to go through a selection process to pick between one and three consultants for which we can use ongoing contracts for small jobs based upon apre-agreed compensation schedule. We will need to set a maximum limit on the size of those jobs. All larger engineering tasks will require the more formal RFP process. Last, some additional part-time clerical assistance will be needed in the Public Works Department. Presently, there is one administrative assistant whose services are split between the Public Works and Utilities Directors and one Dispatcher. Both Department Heads can be more productive with the addition of someone to cover for lunch hours and some other times with an estimate of three hours per day or 15 hours per week of part-time clerical support. This is expected to cost the City $11,000 per year. Recommendations: L Approve the hiring of a Technical Designer and part-time clerical help at an estimated annual cost of $61,000/year. 2. Approve in concept the use of ongoing contracts for engineering services and set a cap amount for projects to be accomplished through these ongoing contracts. 3. Review the action steps in the attached report to see if they aze "on target" with your expectations and call me with your comments or suggestions within the neat two weeks.