Positions added and subtracted at city hall

By Kara Chalmers

As part of a plan to retain its employees, the city will reorganize city hall--a move that will result in a net gain of about one additional position, according to Saratoga Mayor John Mehaffey.

The reorganization will not result in any layoffs at the city. In the city manager's office, two analyst positions will be eliminated, but the city will add a new position: assistant city manager.

The assistant city manager will supervise the remaining analyst in the city manager's office, as well as the economic development coordinator, which the city is trying to fill, said City Manager Dave Anderson.

Anderson said the new position of assistant city manager would add one more person on staff at the level of director, with an equivalent salary range.

Saratoga's employees have been stretched thin, since Saratoga residents voted to eliminate the utility-user's tax in the November 1996 election. After the election, the council had to cut more than $1 million out of its budget, which resulted in increased demands on city workers.

Mehaffey said he thinks the workload is part of the reason the city has had trouble retaining its workers. "Retention and recruitment is a real issue," he said.

The city recently implemented higher salary ranges for all city employees after an independent survey showed Saratoga to be one of the lowest paying cities around. "This is the next phase," Mehaffey said of the reorganization.

Mehaffey said the situation at city hall today is enough of an emergency to justify the changes and any extra cost of reorganizing. The general fund will pay the costs for the rest of this fiscal year, which amounts to $55,553.

"It's a question of balancing workloads," Mehaffey said. "With the turnover we've had at city hall, Dave Anderson has been really strapped ... I would like him to concentrate more on strategic issues and long-term items."

Upon becoming mayor, Mehaffey said he would like to create new positions at City Hall, including a planner who would be dedicated to long-term planning issues and an information technology person who would bring technical expertise to the city and update the city's website. "The website is not really what I would consider up to snuff," Mehaffey said.

The city, which has been trying to fill an associate planner position in the community development department for months now, will make long-range planning part of the associate planner's job duties, Mehaffey said.

Saratoga's city manager's office, before now, was run differently from comparable cities, such as Cupertino, Los Gatos and Los Altos Hills, in that there were four analyst positions on staff. The analysts performed functions that department heads, police chiefs or other city staff members perform elsewhere. With the reorganization, there will only be one analyst left.

According to Mehaffey, when Bill Norton--the interim city manager before the city council hired Dave Anderson full-time--came to work, he suggested that the setup was rather top-heavy and there were too many analysts. Since then, the city has considered ways to make the city manager's office more efficient. One of the analysts, Cary Bloomquist, who is the liaison to the parks and recreation commission, was transferred to the public works department. One other analyst position had been vacant for some time and the city just chose not to fill it. One analyst, Paula Reeve, will remain in the city manager's office.

Mary Jo Walker, the city's director of administrative services, reasoned that one assistant city manager would be better than two analysts, because the position would have more authority. Walker said the city will hire a recruitment firm to find a person to fill the position.

The reorganization also consists of the following consolidations of jobs, promotions and changes: The senior inspector in the city's building division will now be called the building official and his supervising duties will increase. The new classification will allow room for future raises. One more building inspector will be hired in the department to allow the building official to focus more on supervising.

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