City Council

't r , RESOLUTION JAN 2 41967 WHEREAS, the approprlate Departnent Head has requested a re-evaluatlon of eertaln positlons wlthin hls depart&ent concernlng the cLaeslflcatton or the need for new posltlons, and - I{HEREAS, the Administrative Staff has rivlewed the requests along wlth the Director of Personnel and the Dlrector of Finance and concur ln these recomnendations and, WIIEREAS, the City CouncLl has the sole authority and responstbtllty to approve such actlone concernlng the expendlture of funds not approved ln the presently adopted budgeE and, I{HEREAS, the funds for thls actlon are avallabIe wlthin the present llmltattons of the adopted budget, or funds are avallable in excess of the adopted budget as lndicated and approved by the Clty Audltor and, IIIIEREAS, thls actlon ie deemed to be ln the best intereet of the Clty ln that it woutd provlde better and roote effectlve aervices to the public; lXCt'I, THEREFORE, BE LT RESOLVED thd the personnel actions and approprtatlon requested ln the attached cormunlcatlon le approved and the Glty Manager i6 direeted to process Ehe budgetary approprtations ln accordance wlth State Laws concernlng Excise Board ideratlon. ADOPTED AND APPROVED thlg A of Lg67. ATTEST: ( CI,TT /c) APPROVED es to form and legaltty this I / day of D6{. ") (a ltuniclpa Sonorable Mayor, City Co 1, and City Manag {; Re: Utility Office Report From: Frank S. Taylor, Direetor . Water and, Sewer Department Water & Sewer Department 0n Se-ptember 21, 1966, the Clty Cor.mcil authorized the Water Department to enrploy sfx (6) terrporary clei.ks for a period. of two (2) nonths ln an efrort to a]-leviatl ttre backlog of work tn the billing of utility services in the Utllities Office Division. 4g?fn on December $, l%6, a ore-Donth extension for continued. employment of five (5) teurporary clerks for one aclditionaL month was approved. for the-same purpose. lhe adninistrative people in the Water Departnent have mad.e an erctraustive study of the situation in evaluating what must be d.one on a ?ernanent basis to remove the backJ.og and keep curent on this important operation. RECOMMENDATION As a flrst step, f recormrencl that the Clty Cor:ncl3. authorize the followlng ad.d.itonal pemanent employees in the utilities offlce effective February t, t9672 CIASSIFICATION EIPIOrEES RATE ANNUAf, COST COST 10 6/to/et Clerk II 2 $e9o 6 , 960 $e,9oo Clerk fII 3 3t+5 t2 l+aO 5 rt75 Utlltty Collector-Inspeetor 2 360 B,5l+o 31600 $zil.T $ur675 Plckup Trucks rith Rad.io 2 @ $2r2Co h,hoo l0tAt COST 10 ,lune 30, 1967 $15,02, PJ.us continued. Overtime Authorization for six (5) fnspectors :# IOTAt $ 18,325 tle will continue to evaluate the effect of this authorization before the ry6f-eA Bud.get preparation. INTORMATION STTPPORTING RECOIvI}ffiVDA TIONS - On October 1, 196\, the Refuse Department's Office staff of nine (p) employees, along with approximatel-y B5TOOO refuse accounts was transferred to the Utilitles Services offiee. These empl-oyees were responsible for the billing and. collection of these accounts and were able to keep these functions on a fair\r cument basis and. to some extent were given training in water and sewer, preparatory to combining the three utility serviees, water, sewer and. refuse, on one biII. Itre combining of these services on one bill began in January, L966. our office personnel was stilJ- able to keep our fi:nctLons and proced.ures on a cument basis In Aprl1, 1966t the methoil of nreter read.ing was changed from the meter book method. to the mark sense method and at this tine the Data Proeessing Division, by uutual agreement with the liater and. Sewer Department, began prod.ucing utility bi1ls on a group basis pleparing bills.on a twice-a-ueelc schedule with groups of bills consist- lng of three (3) o. four (l+) d.istricts eaeh billing as courpared to d.aily bi[ing on a cchbd.ule which prod.ueed bills for seven (7) aistricts per week, necessary to keep our bi]-ling function on a current basis. At the same tiure the Data Processing Divislon began preparing lnspection ord.ers in accordance wlth a high-Iow consumption schedule provid.ed by the Utilities Offlce, and. from lrregularities d.iscovered. by meter read.ers, reported. by them on the mark sense card.. Imrnediate\r after changlng to the mark sense read.ing method the number of lnspection ord.ers increased tremendous\rr'requiring a correspond.ing increase in fleJ.d. lnspect- lon work and detail in the Utillties Offlce. During a perlod. of about six (5) nonths this offlce e:qrerieneed a turn-over of 5e/" b 6@ tn our meter reaiiing force. The supervlsory staff in the Utilities Office felt this situation coulcl normally be oqrected. to accompany such a change, that it wouId. probab\y be of a teuporary aature and that wlthln a relatlvely short period. we could overcome our problem and. return our fu:rctlons to a current status. Ttrls proved to be an erroneous assurtrlt- l.on and the workl-oad. continued. to faII fi:rther behind. schedule. Early 1n September, !9)66, we became aware of the seriousness of the situation, began a surirey of conditions and. concluded that nunerous ftrnctions r,rere falling fu:'ther behinil , some functions alread;7 xere frcn tuc to fc,r weeiis behinrl schedule. -t"- ] (contlnued) Re Utility 'ce Report Water a wer Department ll?re Director of Water and Seuer was apprised of cond.itions and a meeting was arranged with the City l,lanager and, hls staff on September 2JrcI. As a result of this meeting, this Divislon was authorized the use of sk (6) terrp- orary clerks for a period. of two (2) months and the use of regulai employees nigtrts and weekend.s, on a coqpensato4r tiue basls, for one month. At the oqriratton of these perlod.s our backLog of work still exlsted and. we were authorized. an extenston of thirty (3O) aays use of five (5) temporary elployees on December 13th. By this tlme the original group of six (6) teuporary clerks had been transferred to pernanent positlons ln the office or had resigned to accept euploSrment el"sewhere. Ttiis uade it necessary to employ the five (:) newfy authorized clerks, which was courpleted within the next week. the ocbension period of thirty (3O) aays wiLL explre this week and. at this time three (g) of the five have been or are being transferred to fill- vacancies ln budget- ed positions i.n the office, one (f) Uas resi.gned. and one (f) wiff be separated this thls week. At this time we e:qrect our operatlons to be current as of February lst, however, thls has been aceoqplisheCt by the use of many hours beyond the nor:naL work day, as lnd.leateit by the follouing hours used. sched.ule: Compensatory Supervisory Tota]- Hours Hours Hours Setrrtember ]52+ 63-3/t+ ZI?IT./t+ Oetober 24S+ rt.8-r/\ 366-l/t+ November ft+t+::/h t]-:o-t/2 255-7,/t+ December 86-t/t+ z6\-l/t+ 351 January 1to r-rZ-52) 97-tl2 -t/2 rorAl 6Sz 6>t+4/r+ t2864/\ It has been d.etermined. that the above overtlme vork to catch up on baeklog required approxlmately th pereent of regular employees overtime worh, dlong with the terp- orary clerks over the three-month period.. The seven (7) permanent employees re- quested represents a 10 percent increase, on the theory that nore efficiLney wiLL be received. from permanent employees. Attached to this report is a sched.ule of aceounts, number of employees in Offiee Division and totaL Water Department, only, empJ-oyees, and expenditures, over the Last ten years. You wilI observe that the number of aecounts has inereased 4l- percent, whiLe the number of office emproyees has increased a total of 4.8 FErcent. ltre aclditional seven (7) euployees requested. wlrl only brlng the total increase to 29 percent against total accountlncrease of 41 percent. It is antlcipated. that two of the clerks requested above wiIL be assigned to the process of rendering and eollecting final bills in an effort to substantially re- d,uee the chargeoff of unco]-lectible finaL bl1].s. Ihe ehargeoff has been increasing each year and we feel that with two employees to concentrate on this work lt is conceivable that adclitional collections wouLd^ offset the major part, if not a1J-, of the erqlense of employees requested.. Folloving is a sched.uLe of annual ehargeofis. YEAR AI\,0UMI C"OIERING TIIE YEAR L963 $a4,5o3 o0 L96L 1964 \o,962 o0 Lg62 L965 l+9rBBe 00 L963 L966 ,7 1166 oo L%,+ Ihe charge-off of rrncollectible accounts will contlnue to increase rrntil the Office Divislon can become uore current in follow-up on collections of final accounts. Authorizatlon. ts also requested. for the use of lnspectlon personnel for use on Saturd.ay untiL authorized. positions are aLL fl].led., whlch we expect wlLL take several uonths to satisfaetorily flJ-L the requested, Utillty fnspector-ColLector positions requestecl. Estimated. cost for thts work, uslng a maximum of six (6) inspector each Saturd.ay ls approximateU $l+:0.0O per month and. if used, on this basis the balance of this fiscal year the cost would be about $Z.Z5O.OO to June 30th. FST:dlg January 19, 1967 2 o The Hoaorablc Mayor alod C.ity Gerrtlsmcn: Subject: Requeet for ( ) new poaition (!ol. Departrnent: WATER 2-L-67 Account # 31-L-01 Effective .4: Pregent Title % ,r,) *: NEW POSITIONS Proposed Title TITILIIY COLI,ECIOR-]I{SPECTOB (2) -ho5 $36o.oo Total additional cost for r of fiacal yeat: 5 (e) tt $-Jgggg-tot.l $ a Appropriation: 31-1-OL Juatification: .,i (see report) eubmitted, ty RMf :CVII:tjc rl cc: Department Head Dlrector of Peraonnel Dlrector of tr'iuance City Auditor -rt'' o The Hq,orable Mayor aad City Geatlemen: Subject: Requeet for reclas ( ) new position 8o0. Departnent: HATER Accotrnt #j1:1-olEffective 2-L-67 Preeent Title NEW POSITIONS Proposed Title cLERr( rII (s) 390 Totd additional coet for of ficcal year: 5 (s) 1 at$ 03, total $ 5 l- a Appropriation: 31 Justification: ( see report) y submitted, R. M. Tinstman City Manager RMT:CVH:tjc cc: Department Head Director of Pcreonael Director of Finance Gity Auditor a !' +' *t e ' 'a The Hqrorable Mayor aad C.ity Geatlemen: Subject: Requett for reclae ( ) new positioa 0ol. Departrneut: WATER Account # 3L-I:ofEffective 2-L-57 Preeent Title Salar % NEW POSITIONS Proposed Title crEEK rr (z) - 330.-- $ago.oo Tota1 additional cost for of fiscal year: 5 (s) at$ 5Bo.oo total $ 2, oo Appropriation: 31-1-01 Justification: ( see report ) ','ii Respectfully submitted, R. M. Tinstman City Manager RMf :CVH:tjc cc: Department Head Director of Personnel Director of Fina^nce City Auditor