MADEIRA BEACH – A top to bottom reorganization of city staff across all departments was announced by Madeira Beach City Manager Shane Crawford at the Feb. 1 City Commission workshop.
The restructuring comes just a week after Crawford was sworn in and shows his determination to quickly bring what he says are needed changes to the city.
Crawford said employees need to become comfortable with the word “change” because “the former way of doing things is ineffective and change is going to be a necessary component in gaining respect and earn the prestige this great city deserves.”
The reorganization distributes staff workload in a more organized fashion and gives supervisors clearer lines of reporting both from the top down and bottom up.
Crawford described the restructuring as “the footprint I’ll use as I continue to eliminate deficiencies in the services we perform for our constituents.”
Crawford said he is appointing longtime employee Francine Ettere as his administrative assistant. Ettere has assisted prior city managers, but has been shuffled to various departments since the departure of former city manager W.D. Higginbotham. Ettere has “proven skills that will benefit the office of city manager,” Crawford said.
Crawford next turned his attention to the city hall front office, which he considers the city’s interface with the public. He said finance department employee Gwen Sinkfield will join Cheryl Rudde, both of whom Crawford said have exceptional customer service skills.
In discussing the fire department, Crawford urged the commission to approach the issue of consolidation with “extreme caution” due to possible coming consolidation mandates. He said a consolidation effort on the part of the city now could bring a need for “a future unraveling of what we’ve created once a mandate is handed down.” That could cost significant money, he warned.
Commissioner Terry Lister in particular has pushed for the city to look at consolidating fire services with nearby Treasure Island. Former Madeira Beach fire chief Bill Mallory currently heads the department there. Lister has claimed that move could save the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Crawford said consolidation can provide efficiencies, but also can mean a loss of control and sometimes there is no cost savings. Lister later continued to tout the consolidation idea.
Crawford also indicated interim fire chief Derryl O’Neal is interested in becoming the permanent chief, and will be considered if his appointment does not violate the city’s involuntary resignation policy. O’Neal was fired by Higginbotham.
The finance department, which has been looked after by various interim sources since former director Monica Mitchell left 14 months ago, has suffered from the lack of a director, Crawford said. Crawford fired recently appointed finance director Wayne Shirley, who had been reporting progress in bringing the city’s financial backlog up to date.
Crawford said the city is currently seven to eight months behind in the financial year ending in 2011. What this means, he said, is “the city doesn’t have the data to support where we ended up last year,” making it nearly impossible to create a budget process.
Budgeting for the coming fiscal year, which normally begins early in the year, cannot be started until April or May, Crawford indicated.
Crawford praised finance employee Judy Walker for “keeping the government afloat.” The current 2-3 person finance staff will continue in place until a new director is hired. Crawford said the city’s auditing company will make staff level recommendations “so we never fall this far behind again.”
Catching up will cost the city an extra $25,000 to $35,000, he estimated. That money would have been used to have in-house staff do the work over a longer period of time, he said later.
The human resources function, which had formerly been part of the finance department, will now be brought into the city manager’s office. Crawford said the city has sensitive issues in process and he wants to be the single point of contact. Also, Crawford believes the process of recruiting a quality finance director will be easier by not combining the function with HR.
The community development director position has been open since Paula Cohen left for Treasure Island a year ago. Crawford said he wants to consider taking the building permit process, which currently earns about $160,000 in permit fees, back from Treasure Island, and create a separate building department. The fee dollars could grow significantly as the economy improves, he said.
Crawford said he has not yet had time to perform a thorough financial analysis on bringing back the building permit process, but planned to do so within 60 days.
Day-to-day operation of the recreation, parks, marina, public works and sanitation departments will be handled by a Central Services Department, headed by Dave Marsicano, who has been marina director.
Parking enforcement employees will report to that department rather than finance as they have in the past. Crawford said he will handle major building and capital improvement projects, and would share major management decisions with Marsicano.
Community police officer back?
Crawford is recommending the city consider bringing back a community-policing officer, for a six- to seven-month probationary period. That position, which is offered by the Sheriff’s Office, was eliminated in 2009 as a budget-cutting move. At that time, the officer cost the city $85,000 a year.
Crawford termed the liaison officer “the missing link” in law enforcement. Of that expense, he said, “We spend a little bit to get a million dollar package.”
The last community-policing officer was excellent, Commissioner Nancy Oakley recalled.
“He took care of a thousand things that didn’t require the police to be there,” Oakley said.
