Saratoga News Finance Director appointed to administrative services By Sarah Lombardo Only about a month after her appointment as Saratoga's finance director, Mary Jo Walker needs to get new business cards--this time, with Administrative Services Director as her title. The change is a result of another--and what many staffers call the final--reorganization of the city's finance, human resources and information services departments, and combines the departments into one. City Manager Larry Perlin said the reorganization brings the city full circle. "What we've done is turn the clock back," he said. When the city first looked into reorganizing staff after the November 1996 loss of the utility-users tax, an administrative services department--which merged human resources and information services with finance--was created, and former finance director Thomas Fil was made director. When Fil quit to take a job in another city, Perlin said, Saratoga officials had trouble recruiting someone with the skills to manage finance as well as payroll, staffing benefits and other human resources tasks. So last year Perlin asked the City Council to disassemble the three departments to make it easier to recruit a replacement for Fil. Human resources tasks were put back under the charge of the city manager's office staff, and the city's finances were again located with information services. Enter Mary Jo Walker. According to Perlin, Walker approached him and suggested that the three departments again be merged into one. "And as it turned out," Perlin said, "Mary Jo has the requisites to manage such a department." Walker said the move is better for a city like Saratoga. "For a smaller city like Saratoga, it just makes sense," she said. "Personnel was being handled out of the city manager's office and that's just something that office shouldn't have to worry about." In a memo to the City Council, Walker wrote, "This structure works very well because of the constant interface between human resources staff and payroll/accounting staff, and also relieves the city manager's office from the responsibility of supervising the human resources function." "It makes sense to have these kinds of functions delegated down to the departmental level," Perlin said. "Now the city manager's office can concentrate on broader issues and policies." The move also makes financial sense, saving the city an estimated $1,620 a year in wages from the budget. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, October 28, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.