Title
An Ordinance approving Amendment No. 7 to the Budget for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2021, as adopted by Ordinance No. 8905 and Ordinance No. 8906, by amending the authorized amount of full time equivalent positions in the Law Department for the City of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, and establishing a new pay and classification plan.
(Note: First reading by Council on December 15, 2020. Passed by unanimous vote.)
Body
Discussion.
From time to time with the change in personnel and in order to meet the ever evolving needs of the City, the Law Department needs realignment and reorganization. This amendment to the pay and compensation plan is such a reorganization on the small scale. As you may know, the incumbent employee who serves as the Chief of Infrastructure and Planning is retiring. Additionally, the previous law department Chief of Management and Operations who transferred from Law to the Parks Department as the Superintendent of Legal Services and Human Resources is no longer with that Department requiring those duties to come back to the Law Department. Together, those duties are sufficient to provide a full time position. The position currently titled Chief of Infrastructure and Planning has been revised to include duties related to Parks and Recreation and would now be titled Chief of Infrastructure and Recreation. Additionally, this ordinance creates the position of Chief of Special Projects. The current incumbent Chief of Infrastructure and Planning will become the Chief of Special Projects.
Is the Law Department asking to increase the number of Full Time Equivalents (FTE)?
No, in order to be able to hire a full time Chief of Infrastructure and Recreation we need to allocate one (1) FTE to the position. The retirement described above will result in that that employee being assigned two projects, therefore the full time equivalent (FTE) will be reduced from .75 to .25. Additionally, the current Chief of Litigation has requested that we remove him as a City Employee and engage him as an independent contractor at a substantially reduced rate. He has requested this in order to create additional flexibility. He would then be paid from the professional fees or claims and damages fund thereby providing the additional .5 FTE needed to insure that the total FTE count remains the same.
Isn’t this going to cost more?
Yes and no, the plan outlined above will keep the FTE count the same and will result in personnel costs that are within the approved budget for the Law Department. However, the costs for litigation will be moved from the personnel budget to claims and damages and professional fees, this would result in additional costs to those funds. Barring any unforeseen costs, we anticipate that our litigation costs will be within the current budget however litigation is unpredictable.
Summary.
This change in the Law Department will allow us to better meet the needs of the City and handle the workload. It will require three changes: 1. The current position known as Chief of Infrastructure and Planning will become Chief of Infrastructure and Recreation. 2. A new position titled Chief of Special Projects will be created; and, 3. The current incumbent Chief of Litigation will become an independent contractor. As previously stated we anticipate that these changes will be budget neutral and do not require any increase in FTE’s.
Proposed City Council Motion:
I move for adoption of an Ordinance approving Amendment No. 7 to the Budget for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2021, as adopted by Ordinance No. 8905 and Ordinance No. 8906, by amending the authorized amount of full time equivalent positions in the Law Department for the City of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, and establishing a new pay and classification plan.
Impact/Analysis:
Staff anticipates that this change will be budget neutral.
Presenter
Brian Head, City Attorney
Chris Clubine, Management Analyst