HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/25/1993 City Council MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING
HELD ON
JANUARY 25, 1993
The Special Session of the City Council of the City of The Colony, Texas was called to order
at 7:00 p.m. on the 25th day of January, 1993 at City Hall with the following Council roll
call:
William W. Manning, Mayor Present
Mike Lynch, Councilman Absent
Billy Sharp, Councilman Present
Joe Agnew, Councilman Present
Tom Bogan, Councilman Present
John Dillard, Councilman Absent
Joel Marks, Mayor Pro-tem Present
and with five present, a quorum was established and the following items were addressed:
1. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
2. CONSIDERATION OF THE 1992-93 EMPLOYEE PAY PLANS
Bill Hall advised this had been on the last meeting agenda with no back up and after
discussion the council had postponed to this meeting so that the financial impact to reinstate
the pay plan could be reviewed.
Mayor Manning said he is firmly committed to providing the funds to the city
employees in some fashion, however, he is not sure what that fashion may be. Continuing,
the Mayor said we need to be careful because if we keep the salaries low and lose quality
employees, then we will become a training ground. The Mayor stated if it costs more to
maintain quality employees then that is what we should do, going on to say he would rather
have a few quality employees and good equipment than more employees and poor
equipment. Mayor Manning said he will do whatever is necessary to get the pay plan
reinstated, retroactive to October 1, 1992. The Mayor then went on to suggest this be
postponed to a work session later this week.
Councilman Marks stated that at the meeting last week all the council had agreed
to reinstate the plan, but that the financial impact should be known first. Going on,
Councilman Marks said he understands that Councilman Lynch had FAXed his agreement
to city hall and that he (Marks) doesn't see any reason not to decide this issue tonight.
Mayor Manning said he thinks we should wait to hear the report from Andersen and
Associates. Councilman Bogan said he prefers to put this off a few days so the council has
time to digest the information from the Andersen report.
Councilman Marks clarified Mr. Hall's memorandum, stating the unexpended funds
are $57,000 from October 1 to present and if the current vacancies remain unfilled the
unexpended funds will increase. Councilman Marks went on to say the actual impact is "-'":
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$42,966.00. Bill Hall agreed, stating that is the cost to reinstate the pay plan from October
1, 1992 to September 30, 1993, noting that even after the pay plan is reinstated, salaries will
still be under budget by $14,882.00. Councilman Marks said this has been discussed and this
should be passed tonight.
Motion to expend $42,966.00 to reinstate the 1992-93 pay plan retroactive to October 1,
1992 - Marks; second - Agnew.
Councilman Sharp said he is in favor of people getting their pay, but would like to
hear Andersen's report first. Councilman Sharp went on to suggest only making this
retroactive for those persons at level 7 and down, not level 8 and above. Explaining, the
Councilman said this includes the bulk of the employees and might be less money.
Councilman Sharp also suggested making this retroactive only to January 15, 1993. Another
suggestion by Councilman Sharp was to give a one time bonus.
Councilman Marks said he understands the feelings of the employees and that he
wonders what the employees will think of the council if the plan is not reinstated, going on,
he said we (the council) can't bargain, we either reinstate the plan or not, and it must be
retroactive to October 1, 1992. Councilman Marks said a decision must be made tonight.
Councilman Sharp said he is in favor of the raises, but reminded everyone that the
Council just raised taxes five cents. Councilman Bogan said he is very much in favor of
giving employees a raise, but he challenged each councilman to look at other options to find
another way to make everyone happy.
Mayor Manning said to be careful not to chop up a pay plan that has been in place
for a long time, and maybe this should be passed tonight knowing the pay plan will be
adjusted in the near future. Councilman Agnew agreed, going on to say he is in favor of
making the reinstatement retroactive to October 1, 1992. The Councilman said we need to
let the employees know where they stand, and that we will leave them high and dry if we
delay this action.
Councilman Marks reminded the others that everyone agreed to reinstate the pay
plan when the financial impact was known, reiterating this is a positive impact of $14,000.
He went on to say it is important to show our loyalty to the employees. Councilman Bogan
disagreed, stating he did not say he was in favor, noting there was nothing to look at last
week, but went on to say he is in favor of raises for employees.
Motion carried with the following roll call vote: Sharp - Aye; Agnew - Aye; Bogan - No;
Marks - Aye; Manning - Aye.
3. RECEIVE FINAL REPORT FROM RALPH ANDERSEN AND ASSOCIATES
REGARDING THE AUDIT OF CITY OPERATIONS
David Eisenlohr representing Ralph Andersen and Associates addressed the council,
covering the points in the Executive Summary (see Attachment "A") of the Final Report of
the ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT STUDY conducted by his company. Using
the overhead projector, Mr. Eisenlohr explained the items covered in the report as follows:
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· Background
· Factual Profile
· Organization Climate
· Comparative Analysis
· Findings and Recommendations
· Implementation
Mr. Eisenlohr said the council does not need to act tonight, stating the council will
need several weeks to review the entire report.
After the presentation, Mayor Manning said the report seems to be very
comprehensive and there appears to be lots of work to do. Mr. Eisenlohr said there is lots
of good, positive information in the report, but the survey tends to highlight the things that
need improvement. Councilman Sharp asked if this was done before the new police chief
was hired, and Mr. Eisenlohr said the police chief and the public works director positions
were vacant at the time the survey began, noting however, that any changes the company
is aware of are reflected in the report.
8:50 p.m. Recess
9:08 p.m. Reconvene
4. WORK SESSION WITH DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS TO DISCUSS THE
UPCOMING COUNCIL AND STAFF RETREAT
Mayor Manning said the purpose of this work session is to discuss the upcoming
council/staff retreat. This work session will be conducted as a round table discussion. Patti
Hicks advised everyone the retreat will be held at the Large Dining Hall at Lake Lewisville
State park and will begin at 2:00 p.m. on February 12 and will continue on February 13,
1993 beginning at 8:30 a.m.
It was decided that all department directors should be present at the retreat for the
entire time. Department directors are asked to prepare long and short term goals, more
specifically, one year and five year, attainable goals. The goals will need to be prioritized
and a plan of action established for each.
David Eisenlohr was asked to stay for the work session and he stated that the council
needs to prepare for this retreat too. Councilman Agnew said he would like to see goals
for eighteen months to two years. Mayor Manning noted that part of the retreat may be
used to prepare for the next budget process. James England agreed with setting one year
goals and that we need to start early for the 93-94 year.
There was lengthy discussion, involving all present as to what would be discussed at
the retreat.Most agreed the report from Andersen and Associates should be a topic of
discussion.
Mr. Eisenlohr suggested that Department Directors use Friday afternoon to share
their views on the report and the Council use Saturday Morning for that purpose. He then
said Saturday afternoon could be set aside for bringing the two view points together and '-"
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perhaps setting goals from those ideas.
Further discussion followed. Mayor Manning noted that this is a public meeting and
that anyone is welcome to attend, but stated the following persons must attend:
Bill Hall, Patti Hicks, James England, Margaret Burkett, Bob van Til, Bruce Stewart,
Van Morrison, Tom Cravens, Sylvia Brantley, and Joan Sveinsson.
Councilman Bogan said he thinks the city should formally respond to the report from
Andersen and Associates at some later date.
With no further business to address, Mayor Manning adjourned the meeting at 9:58
p.m.
APPROVED:
William W. Manning,
ATI'EST:
Patti A. Hicks, TRMC, CMC/AAE
City Secretary
[SE~L)
Executive Summary
EXECUTIVE
SVMMAg¥
This document represents the Final Report on an organization and management
study of the City of The Colony conducted by Ralph Andersen & Associates. The
Executive Summary provides a brief overview of the background, findings and
recommendations resulting from the analysis and serves as a ready reference to the
full report document. The organization of the Executive Summary mirrors that of
the Final Report and includes separate sections on:
· Background
· Factual Profile
· Organization Climate
· Comparative Analysis
· Findings & Recommendations
· Implementation.
Each of these items is discussed, in summary fashion, below and on the following
pages.
BACKGROUND
Chapter I of the Final Report presents the background, scope and approach to the
organization and management review. The study, which was authorized by City
Council and supported by the City Manager and staff, was the result of city's desire
to ensure that all available opportunities to maximize effectiveness and improve
cost efficiency were being taken advantage of.
The organization and management study included all city departments, programs
and services. The basic intent of the study is to isolate areas in need of improve-
ment and to develop specific recommendations in that regard. A supporting
objective was the identification of areas of the city organization likely to benefit
from further, in-depth review and analysis.
The specific objectives established for the assignment included:
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Executive Summary
· To document, analyze and assess the city's organization structure, reporting
relationships, spans of control and distribution of responsibility
· To review, analyze and evaluate workload and staffing for each city
department
· To evaluate internal operating practices, polices and procedures for
effectiveness and efficiency
· To conduct comparative analyses to determine the extent to which the city's
staffing, workload, expenditures and revenues conform to those of other
similar municipalities
· To assess the attitudes, concerns and morale of all city workers
· To identi~ and document short and long term improvement opportunities
· To prioritized the recommendations to allow the city to quickly take
advantage of identified cost savings and operational improvements
· To conduct the management study in an open, responsive manner, allowing
for the active involvement of elected officials, senior managers and
employees in the project.
In conducting the study, Ralph Andersen & Associates completed a workplan
which involved extensive data collection, conduct of an organization climate survey
of all city employees, conduct of a multi-city comparative analysis survey, personal
interviews with a large sample of city managers, supervisors and staff, direct
observations of city operations and services, assessment and evaluation, detailed
analysis and report preparation and review.
FACTUAL PROFILE
Chapter II of the Final Report documents the current organization, operations,
staffing and resources of the City of The Colony. This profile is included to
establish the organizational context of the consultant's work and to provide the
factual basis from which subsequent observations and recommendations are
derived. The chapter does not include any analysis or evaluation, neither are
conclusions drawn nor recommendations presented. Readers familiar with the
structure and operations of the City of The Colony may wish to skip this chapter.
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Executive Summary
ORGANIZATION CLIMATE
The management study included a survey of city employee attitudes and concerns.
The confidential survey, or organization climate assessment, was administered on
a voluntary basis to all city. employees. The survey instrument included 55
individual items, focused on nine basic aspects of the city's organization,
management and operations including:
· Mission, Goals and Objectives
· Resources
· Systems & Procedures
· Direction
· Communications
· Training & Employee Development
· Workplace
· Customer Service & Responsiveness
· Performance Evaluation & Compensation.
The response rate for the survey was fairly good, totalling 100 individual employees
or approximately 70% of the city's total authorized strength at the time of the
survey's administration. The results, including graphic representations of the
responses on key survey items, are presented in detail in Chapter III of the Final
Report. The full tabulation of the survey responses on each item, along with the
verbatim compilation of narrative employee comments, have been previously
provided under separate cover.
General conclusions that result from the analysis of the survey responses, in
combination with the independent observations of the consulting team, include the
following:
· There are significant disparities in the response patterns between adminis-
trative personnel and line, direct service workers housed outside of city hall.
There is a sense of "them and us" within the organization, mainly directed
at city hall by the non city-hall staff.
· The greatest concerns of city workers tend to fall into three general areas:
1) resources and, more particularly, staffing in relationship to workload; 2)
training and employee development, with a particular concern about
promotional opportunity; and 3) compensation, with concerns about the
overall equity and competitiveness of the city's pay plan.
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Executive Summary
· Pay concerns are less predominate among the sworn public safety staff than
among civilian line workers.
· The Colony's employees have a strong public service ethic and have a sense
of purpose and direction in their work.
· There is mixed feeling in the organization with regard to the quality of
supervision, the adequacy and consistency of the city's policies and proce-
dures, and the effectiveness of internal communication systems.
· Staff housed outside of the city hall complex are concerned about the
physical adequacy of their workplaces and crowding may be becoming a
problem.
· Staff in some departments, building inspections and fire most noticeably,
have considerably more negative feelings towards the city organization than
to most others.
· The proximity in time of the administration of the survey and the announce-
ment of budget cuts, salary freezes, position reductions, etc., along with the
management instability and uncertainty caused by vacancies in two key
department director positions, very likely had a depressive effect on the
overall pattern of survey response.
The survey responses confirmed many of the consultant's overall findings about the
City of The Colony and were used to support some of the recommendations
included in Chapter V of the Final Report.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Chapter IV of the Final Report presents the results of a ten city comparative
analysis survey. Such surveys are often used to develop basic contextual data and
to provide a framework for the comparison of the subject organization to its peers
on a variety of variables.
Jurisdictions participating in the survey included:
· City of Allen
· City of Cedar Hill
· City of Coppell
· City of Flower Mound
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Executive Surnrnan/
· City of Grapevine
· City of Greenville
· City of Lancaster
· City of Lewisville
· City of McKinney
· City of Watauga.
All ten of the selected survey agencies participated in the data collection effort.
From the ten cities surveyed, the following general statistical profile emerges:
· The survey jurisdictions range in population size from 19,500 to 47,00, with
a mean (average) of 25,526 and a median (middle) population o~22,868.
This places The Colony right in the middle of the survey array in terms of
population size.
· The cities range in land ares from 4 square miles to over 45 square miles,
with a mean land area of just over 28 square miles and a median area of
33.75 square miles. Thus, The Colony is at the low end of the survey group
in terms of physical size.
· Full time employment in the survey cities ranges from a low of 79 to a high
of 488, with mean and median employment of 209 and 139 respectively. At
144 full time authorized strength, The Colony's staffing levels are in the
middle of the survey group.
· Total current fiscal year budgets range between approximately $5 million
and $38 million. The Colony's $12 million total is substantially lower than
both the survey average and median.
In summary, key conclusions from the comparative analysis survey include the
following:
· The city's comparatively high property tax rate is directly attributable to
lower than average assessed values in the city. The Colony's tax base is
heavily comprised of moderately-priced single family residential property -
the very type of property that creates high municipal service demand and
produces comparatively low municipal revenue. This, clearly, has important
implications for the future direction of the city organization.
· Compared to its peer cities, The City of The Colony tends to spend less per
capita on basic city services than most. This especially evident in the
service areas funded by general revenues, as distinguished from utility
revenues.
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Executive Summary
· In some areas, overall workload demands appear to be somewhat lower
than the average for the comparison. This is most evident in the public
safety area, where call for service volumes per capita and per officer are
comparatively low.
· In most city service areas, indications are that The Colony's general service
levels are comparable to those in the peer cities. In the water utility area,
however, there is some suggestion that staffing and service levels may be
higher than those provided elsewhere.
FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS
The findings and recommendations resulting from the management study are
presented in Chapter V of the report document. That chapter includes a set of
specific findings resulting from the consultant's data collection and analysis. The
findings are supported by a series of specific recommendations to improve the
operating efficiency and overall effectiveness of The Colony's municipal organiza-
tion.
The findings and recommendations are organized into major topical areas as
follows:
· Organization Structure
· Mission, Goals & Objectives
· Workload, Resources & Staffing
· Administrative & Management Systems
· Organization Climate
· Other Findings & Recommendations.
Some of the more significant findings include:
Organization Structure
· The functions and services of the city are generally well organized
· Reporting relationships and lines of authority are generally clear
· The City Manager's span of control is excessive
· The Police Department is "over organized" and "over supervised"
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Executive Summary
· The Public Works Director's span of control is approaching an excessive
level
Mission, Goals & Objectives
· The city lacks a formalized set of operational goals and objectives
· Service level standards and effectiveness measures do not exist in any
meaningful way
· Management reporting systems need improvement
Workload, Resources & Staffinff
· Daily operating activities tend to be "survival" oriented
· Fire Department resources are only marginally adequate
· Police Department staffing is adequate, though not excessive, but poorly
balanced to workload
· Resources allocated to Building Inspections are comparatively generous
· The city's approach to recent budget reductions resulted in an inefficient
"shift" of resources away from direct service activities
· Resource in the utility funded departments and divisions are relatively
more abundant than in others
· Staffing and other resources allocated to the Library and Parks &
Recreation are marginal but adequate to provide current services
· The city has deferred significant expenditures on needed capital
equipment
Administrative & Management Systems
· The city's budget document provides insufficient information for policy
planning and operational management purposes
· The city does not have a complete set of accurate, legally compliant job
descriptions
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·The city's administrative policies and procedures are not comprehensive-
ly documented
Organization Climate
· The city has significant management and supervisory development needs
· The current employee performance appraisal system is ineffective
· Many city employees consider their pay and benefits neither competitive
nor equitable
Other Findings
· The City of The Colony faces significant, structural financial problems
· The city has an opportunity to critically evaluate its planning and
development review procedures
· The city is not taking full advantage of automation and related
technologies.
Among the more important recommendations are the following:
Organization Structure
· Create a consolidated department of Administrative Services
· Reorganize the Police Department into two divisions and reduce the
total number of supervisory personnel
· Reorganize the Public Works Department to reduce the Director's
immediate span of control, reduce the number of supervisors and tighten
accountability
Mission, Goals & Objectives
· Develop and implement an annual Council/Management planning and
goal setting program
·Establish specific program performance standards and measurement
criteria for each city service program
· Design and implement an improved management reporting system
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Workload, Resources & Staffing
· Do not open Fire Station #2 within existing resources without a careful
evaluation of costs and benefits of such a decision
· Conduct a detailed analysis of patrol staffing and deployment practices
· Critically evaluate the need for two full-time Building Inspectors in light
of projected building activity
· Maintain, but do not expand, existing leisure related services and
programs
· Place a very high priority on capital equipment needs in the upcoming
budget
Administrative & Management Systems
· Upgrade the format and content of the published budget document
· Prepare written job descriptions for all city jobs, taking into full account
all provisions of applicable federal law
· Develop a complete set of general administrative guidelines and follow
them
Organization Climate
· Invest in managerial and supervisory skills development and training
· Undertake a critical evaluation of the performance appraisal system and
provide specific training in effective appraisal techniques to all supervi-
sory staff
· Resources permitting, the city should undertake an independent analysis
of its compensation program to ensure market competitiveness and
internal salary equity
Other Recommendations
· The city must develop a multi-pronged attack to address its financial
dilemma
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Executive Summary
· Undertake a comprehensive review and analysis of development policies,
processes and procedures
· Develop a long range technology plan.
IMPLEMENTATION
The final chapter of the report includes a suggested implementation plan. It is
recommended that the City Manager be designated as the senior official
responsible for coordinating the implementation of the study results, with the
participation and support from all the department directors in each of the affected
city departments.
This implementation chapter includes a discussion of the anticipated benefits and
costs of each recommendation, and an implementation plan listing each recommen-
dation, by topical category, along with an indicated priority, timing, and staff
member responsible.
The report document also includes a number of appendices containing supporting
materials.
Ralph Andersen & Associates would like to thank the Mayor, City Council, City
Manager and all city staff for their time in making this a successful engagement.
We have enjoyed working with the City of The Colony and are pleased to have had
the opportunity to provide assistance in this important study effort.
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