City of Shoreline reallocates staffing in 2012 budget

With the end of some major capital projects in Shoreline, some positions simply ran out of things to do, according to one of six City staff laid off at the end of December. Other departments needed a little extra help. According to a presentation to a November 2, 2011 Council of Neighborhoods meeting by Assistant City Manager Debbie Tarry, the Director of Public Works requested the reinstatement of a separate City Engineer position. Director Mark Relph has been holding both positions since his hire in 2006. The City Council agreed to all the staffing changes.

In addition to the planned changes, the head of Planning and Development Services, Joe Tovar, left his position.

Following are the details of the budget changes and status updates from the Office of the Shoreline City Manager.

"In 2009 the Citizen Advisory Committee on Long-Range Financial Planning reinforced that the City’s budget culture must continue to incorporate opportunities to identify efficiencies and opportunities to reduce the cost of providing services, while preserving services that reflect the community’s priorities. The City also must be accountable to taxpayers by living within our means and making reductions when resources or workload changes occur as a result of economic changes. In some cases the changes in the 2012 budget are a reflection of reduced funding and workload as a result of economic changes and in others represent a reallocation of funding for the Council Goals and priorities. The 2012 budget eliminated 6.0 current full-time equivalent positions (FTEs) and created 5.1 FTE positions for a net reduction of 0.90 FTEs.

"Of the positions eliminated 2.5 FTEs were in the City’s capital budget. Those positions were a City’s Capital Projects Manager, a 50% reduction in the Capital Project Technician position, and the elimination of a vacant Administrative Assistant position. The reductions in capital projects are the result of the continued decline in capital resources and resulting decrease in projected capital projects over the next few years.

"The remaining 3.5 FTEs eliminated were from the City’s operating budget and included the elimination of the City’s Network Administrator and part-time Administrative Assistant in the City’s Administrative Services Department and the elimination of a Senior Planner and Associate Planner in the City’s Planning and Community Development department. Resources that had funded these positions were reallocated to provide funding for Council Goals and other community priorities.

"Some of those reallocated resources will go towards hiring a City Engineer. Currently, the City Engineer responsibilities lie with the Public Works Director. The City Engineer is responsible for the oversight and management of all capital construction within the City, making sure there is consistent application of policy, code and standards through design, inspection and eventually construction.

"Historically, the City had a separate City Engineer. However, in 2006, the position was eliminated and the responsibilities were given to the Public Works Director. As the City has grown and the Public Works Director’s responsibilities have expanded, his ability to perform the duties of the City Engineer while still achieving all of the Council Goals have become very difficult. Creating the City Engineer position will allow the Public Works Director to spend more time on SPU acquisition matters and organizational management. The alternative to hiring a City Engineer would have been to utilize more consultants, which may not have achieved cost savings over the City Engineer position.

"The 2012 budget also includes a new Facilities Maintenance Worker and an increase of a part-time Recreation Assistant to full-time. Other new positions with dedicated funding sources in 2012 include 1.5 Animal Control FTEs as a result of Council’s direction to provide this service with City staff as opposed to continuing the contract with King County, and a new Surface Water Technician funded through the Surface Water Utility.

"The City is in the process of recruiting a new Director for the Planning department. The department continues to be staffed by a number of long-term employees including Assistant Director Rachael Markle and 6 planners, including Senior Planner Paul Cohen.

"As for the 3rd mile of Aurora, the Aurora Team is still intact and fully capable of completing the project."