HomeMy WebLinkAbout19 - Public Works ReorganizationSupplemental Item No. 19
August 14, 2007
CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH
Public Works Department
Memorandum
DATE: August 9, 2007
TO: City Council &
Homer Bludau, City Manager
FROM: Stephen G. Badum, Public Works Direct
SUBJECT: Approval of Public Works Reorganization Plan, Agenda Item #19
The attached revised Cost of Proposed Reorganization contains corrections to the
originally submitted information in the agenda packet, Item No. 19.
1) The position cost shown for the City Surveyor that was shown at $150,110, should
have been listed as $105,110.
2) Under both the existing positions and reorganized positions, the Senior PW
Inspectors numbered three positions. The revised numbers now show only two
positions in both situations. The third position was reclassed to Construction
Supervisor in June 2007. This reclass created a supervisor amoung the current Senior
PW Inspector positions that allowed the transfer of a Principal Engineer position from
solely construction management duties to broader capital project management duties.
This change allowed the City to bolster the number of project managers working on the
CIP. Therefore, the revised cost sheet shows two Senior PW Inspectors and one
Construction Supervisor.
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CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH
CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT
Agenda Item No. 19
August 14, 2007
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: City Manager
Homer Bludau
949 -644- .3000; hbludau @city.newport - beach.ca.us
Public Works Department
Stephen G. Badum
949- 644 -3311 or sbadum @city.newport - beach.ca.us
SUBJECT: APPROVAL OF THE REORGANIZATION PLAN FOR THE PUBLIC
WORKS DEPARTMENT
ISSUE: With the current number of vacancies, recruitment issues, and given the
high level of current demands, how will the Public Works Department
continue to deliver quality capital projects and services?
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Approve the proposed Reorganization Plan for the Public Works
Department.
2. Authorize staff to make the necessary changes to implement the approved
Reorganization Plan.
DISCUSSION:
The attached reorganization plan is necessary to enable the Public Works Department
to continue to deliver quality capital projects and services. Recent retirements,
recruitment issues, an ever growing capital improvements program, and the expansion
of services, studies and projects in the areas of water quality and environmental
restoration require us to realign our organization to meet these challenges.
Additionally, we are on the eve of an extensive building facility program that will
dominate our capital improvements program over the next ten years.
The Public Works Department team has experienced great changes over the last six
months with the retirement of key senior members including the City Engineer,.
Development Services and Transportation Manager, and a Principal Engineer /Acting
City Engineer.. Additionally, we have lost another Principal Engineer due to medical
issues. While the loss of these four key, experienced positions reduces institutional
knowledge, it also provides an opportunity to make changes in the organization that
mirrors our needs and will allow us to meet current and future demands and challenges.
Recruitment efforts for top engineering management positions have been difficult.
Recent interviews for the City Engineer position yielded five candidates in the
APPROVAL OF THE REORGANIZATION PLAN FOR THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT
Augus! 14, 2007
Page 2
recommended range with no candidates in the highly recommended or outstanding
ranges. Additionally, we received only two acceptable applications for the recruitment
of the Development Services /Transportation Manager position. Due to the poor
response, we elected to cancel both processes. The City is not alone in recruitment
problems, as many of my Orange County Public Works colleagues have reported
similar recruitment problems. Current industry employment trends show that the aging
Baby Boomer generation is retiring and the number of available experienced top
management replacements is shrinking.
The good news in all of this is that the department has a number of talented young
engineers that we feel are ready to step up as the next generation of mid -level
management. Staff recently held an in -house recruitment for the Senior Civil Engineer
and Associate Engineer levels and has established a strong list of very qualified
candidates. Additionally, we have completed a recruitment of Junior Civil Engineers
and have established a list of newly graduated engineers that we will use to backfill
vacant positions as in -house candidates move up into more responsible positions.
The Plan
The proposed reorganization plan allows us to build on our existing strengths and
encourages employees to grow and take on new challenges. The plan also keeps
within the currently established budget and maintains the same number of employees.
The existing departmental organization has three divisions, Engineering (Capital
Projects), Development Services/Transportation, and Administration. The proposed
reorganization plan calls for a shift in those divisions by enhancing the Administration
Division, combining Engineering and Development Services/Transportation divisions,
and creates a new division that would focus on the Building Facilities program, which
has been a top priority for the City.
Building Facilities Division
This new division would consist of one or more contract Building Program Managers
who would be responsible for the delivery of replacement building facilities. The
contract managers would report directly to the Public Works Director. The singular
focus of this division would ensure the efficient and effective delivery of key capital
building projects in accordance with City Council priorities. The cost of this division
would be included within the financing packages for each Council authorized Jacility
replacement project. The use of contract personnel will allow flexibility, responsiveness
and will accommodate desired schedules and the complexities of building projects.
Engineering Division
The combination of the current Engineering and Development Services/Transportation
Divisions provides three distinct advantages:
® The combination of the two divisions allows improved cross division cooperation,
training, and control;
APPROVAL OF THE REORGANIZATION PLAN FOR THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT
August 14, 2007
Page 3
• With one division, personnel can be easily shifted from various disciplines and
projects to accommodate increases and decreases in work loads;
• The reduction of one division manager position is an overall cost savings. The
two positions (City Engineer and Development Services /Transportation Manager)
can be combined to form the Deputy Public Works Director /City Engineer
position. This action would enable us to increase the compensation and make
us more competitive while still realizing a savings that could be applied
elsewhere to the reorganization. With the current marketplace and recruitment
situation, we would propose that we hold off filling this position and investigate
the possibility of utilizing a contract City Engineer for a one year period.
With six Principal Engineers and a Construction Supervisor reporting to the one new
division manager, the span of control would be stretched to problematic proportions.
To remedy, this situation, we are proposing that another tier of mid - management be
created to reduce the number of direct reports to four. This can be accomplished by
creating four section leaders. Two section leaders, Assistant City Engineers, would
each lead a capital projects section that would be responsible for the bulk of the City's
Capital Improvement Program. Their focus would continue on the street, drainage,
water, sewer, water quality, environmental, park, assessment district, and
miscellaneous improvements. The third section leader, the City Traffic Engineer,
would lead development services and transportation programs. This section's focus
would continue on plan check, traffic studies, public R/W permits /agreements, traffic
operations including the implementation of the Traffic Signal Modernization Plan. The
fourth section leader, the currently existing Construction Supervisor, will continue to
manage the City's construction contracts and permitted work within the public rights -of-
way. With the recent retirement of the Acting City Engineer, there are four senior team
members remaining, three Principal Engineers and the Construction supervisor, that
are critical to the maintaining the delivery of capital projects and services. These
individuals would fill these important section leader assignments.
With the elimination of five Principal engineer positions, these three new section leader
positions and 4 additional Senior Civil Engineer positions can be added (upgraded
Associate Engineer positions). We currently have 10 talented Associate Engineers.
Several current Associates are ready to take on more responsibility and should be
advanced'to the next engineering level. The new Senior positions will enable us to
retain and grow several of these talented individuals.
As discussed above the recent in -house and outside recruitments put us in a position to
backfill the vacant positions that are the result of advancement of in -house candidates
(see attached exhibit for position numbers and costs)
Administration Division
The current Administration division is led by the Administrative Manager and provides
financial'-and support management services. This division will continue -to provide
departmental budget development, Capital Improvement Program preparation and
fiscal management, customer services, record management, training, payroll and
centralized clerical services. With this reorganization plan, mapping services,
geographic information systems support, and a more focused records management
APPROVAL OF THE REORGANIZATION PLAN FOR THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT
August 14, 2007
Page 4
program will be added to this division. This change will enable better customer service
for the public and internal customers. The City Surveyor and the current vacant GIS
Analyst (currently titled Survey Instrument Worker) would report to the Administrative
Manager. Additionally, a new position, Management Assistant would be added to
improve customer service via improved record keeping and public counter service.
If the Reorganization Plan is approved, what will the Public Works Director do?
During the budget presentations, we unveiled a preview of this proposed plan and
Council questioned what the Public Works Director (PWD) would be doing with one
less division manager reporting to him. The reality is that the PWD will still have the
same number of reports and perhaps more if the City Council approves the hiring of
multiple Building Program Managers. The key benefit is that the PWD will have more
time to focus on City Council's top facility priorities. This organizational change will also
allow the PWD to be more responsive to City Council concerns and special projects as
they arise throughout the fiscal year and during the evolution of projects. As you may
be aware, several projects and issues where raised this year that required special
attention by the PWD including: the emergency redesign of Newport Coast
Drive /Pelican Hill Road Intersection Redesign; Pelican Hill Road Closure; various City
Hall issues (committee meetings, site investigations, trailers), the joint evaluation of
development review, plan check, and permit issuance with Building and Planning;
recent assessment district failure issues; General Plan implementation such as the
Fairshare Fee Update; various local school circulation issues, various neighborhood
traffic calming issues; miscellaneous studies and 'investigations in the areas of minor
traffic problems, sound walls, cell tower placement; keeping abreast of major
development projects such as Mariners Gateway and Hoag Hospital projects; and
resolving various constituent permit issues.
Also, with the current workload, the City's needs are not being adequately addressed
at the regional level. With Renewed Measure M about to be rolled out it is imperative
that the City be represented at the regional Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) to
ensure that the City receives its fairshare of the competitive funds. Over the next few
years, OCTA will be formulating the distribution amounts and criteria for competitive
funding programs at the TAC with their recommendations going to the Board for
approval and implementation. Other regional issues such as the City of Costa Mesa's
SR 55 Access Study, 17th Street Corridor Improvements, and 1gth Street Bridge issues
as well as the City of Irvine's airport area development plans require priority attention.
Regular relations with Caltrans, County of Orange, adjacent cities, Newport — Mesa
Unified School District, and other State and Federal agencies are- also necessary to
ensure our City's ability to take advantage of opportunities and to participate in regional
discussions that could affect Newport Beach.
APPROVAL OF THE REORGANIZATION PLAN FOR THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT
August 14, 2007
Page 5
Conclusions:
In summary, the requested reorganization will improve the quality and delivery of
capital projects and services. Key reasons to approve the requested action are:
• Takes advantage of a one time opportunity that addresses current vacancies
and recruitment problems while restructuring the organization to meet needs
today and in the future.
• Builds in the flexibility to shift resources based upon City Council priorities.
• New positions are funded through savings, either deleted positions or
downgraded positions.
• Current organization is too top heavy with six principal engineers. The
organization needs more mid - level project managers to ensure continued
success of the CIP and other services.
• Avoids current recruitment dilemma by building on current employee strengths
and utilizing contract employees.
Several times over the past year members of the City Council have asked the City
Manager and the Public Works Director to tell them what is needed in order to ensure
the projects Council wants to move expeditiously can be accomplished. After some
disappointments encountered during recent recruitments, both the City Manager and
the Public Works Director believe that by realigning some department positions, adding
responsibilities, and utilizing contract management resources that we can accomplish
the projects within reasonable time frames. This reorganization can be accomplished
without the addition of permanent positions and within the department's budget that
was approved six weeks ago.
Environmental Review:
Provisions of CEQA are not applicable.
Prepared and swbmitted by:
;i5 G. Badum
Works Director
Attachment:
Existing Organizational Chart
Proposed Reorganization Chart
Cost of Proposed Reorganization
� Z - f4e.�
Homer Bludau/
City Manager
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