· Besides the Director and the Zoning Administrator, the Planning Department"s management team is comprised of six Planner Vs, one Manager of Finance and Administration, and the Planning Commission Secretary. The Planner Vs oversee 119 of the Department"s 147 authorized full-time equivalents. The Manager of Finance and Administration oversees eight and the Planning Commission Secretary oversees five administrative positions.

· Responsibilities are not equally distributed between the six Planner V"s. Three share management responsibility for all Neighborhood Planning functions including processing development applications, code enforcement, building permit review, and the landmarks process; one is responsible for long range planning, one is responsible for environmental review and the sixth Planner V is responsible for information systems and the Public Information Center. Given the lower number of functions and staff positions in the Information Services/Public Information Center unit compared to the other units, management of this unit by a Planner V position at an annual salary and benefits cost of $132,328 at the maximum step is not warranted or appropriate.

· The Department"s 21 administrative positions are now split between three managers, one of whom is also Secretary to the Planning Commission. Consolidation of all administrative functions under a single manager would result in more efficient operations and would also allow the Department to streamline its management structure by deleting one manager position through attrition and reduce its management costs by approximately $132,328 per year in salaries and benefits. The number of reporting positions under a consolidated administrative structure would be appropriate for a position at the level of the Manager of Finance and Administration.

· The number of supervisors per staff planner in the Major Environmental Analysis Unit is 3.2 compared to a median of one supervisor for every 6.5 planners for the rest of the Department. By applying the 6.5 median supervisory ratio to the Major Environmental Analysis unit, the number of supervisors could be reduced by three, by reclassifying downward three Planner IV positions to three Planner III positions, reducing salary and benefits costs by approximately $52,461 per year.

The Department"s current management structure is comprised of the following positions:

· one Director

· one Zoning Administrator/Deputy Director

· six Planner Vs

· one Chief of Administration

· one Planning Commission Secretary/Chief of Operations¹

Together, these management positions oversee all Department functions and staff. The distribution of functions and staff are shown on the organization chart on the following page.

An assessment of each manager"s functions and number of reporting employees shows an unequal distribution, with managers at comparable pay levels assigned varying levels of responsibility. Exhibit 9.1 shows the salaries, functions and number of reporting employees for each manager based on the Department"s staffing and organization chart provided to the auditors during the audit.

Exhibit 9.1
Comparison of Manager Salaries, Positions Reporting and Functions
Planning Department

Source: Staffing/organization chart provided by the Planning Department

Note: Includes all budgeted positions including authorized but vacant positions

As shown in Exhibit 9.1, the median number of reporting positions for all managers, excluding the Zoning Administrator², is 19. For Planner V"s only, the median is 20. The top step salary for Planner V"s in FY 2001-02 salary is $105,862. The two other management positions, the Operations Manager and Manager of Finance and Administration have slightly lower salaries that the Planner Vs. They also have many fewer reporting positions than the Planner Vs.

Within the Planner V group, the range around the median number of reporting positions of 20 is 16 through 23.5. The Planner V with the lowest number of reporting employees is responsible for Information Systems, with eight positions, and the Planning Information Center, with another 8 positions, for a total of 16 positions. The other managers with comparatively low numbers of reporting positions are the Operations Manager and the Manager of Finance and Administration, with five and eight positions reporting, respectively.

With the proximity of salaries for all of these management positions, an equitable distribution of reporting positions and functions should be expected. The functions of the Planner Vs are reasonably equitably distributed except for the Information Systems/Planning Information Center Unit. The unit consists of the Department"s centralized information systems function and the Planning Information Center. The Planning Information Center staff is responsible for providing zoning and related information to the public. Therefore, a planner manager for the unit is appropriate. However, the Planning Information Center is supervised by a Planner IV who is extremely familiar with the Planning Code and able to provide answers and guidance to the Counter staff to provide to the public when they are uncertain what information to provide. The Information Services division, on the other hand, is more of a technical and administrative function that does not require the skills and abilities of a high level planner.

Given the low number of positions currently reporting to the Manager of Administration and Finance, transferring Information Systems to that unit would not result in an inordinate number of employees for that manager. The Information Services division already has a fairly senior level supervisor with the technical and managerial skills and background necessary to oversee day to day operations with reasonable autonomy. Placing the division in the Administration division would better allow for coordination of all administrative functions with a single manager accountable for the Department"s internal services and would increase the level of responsibility for the Manager of Administration and Finance to one more appropriate given the position"s job description and compensation. It would provide a single manager in the Department to deal with all internal administrative matters and make decisions about how to best allocate administrative resources from a department-wide perspective.

If the Information Systems unit were moved to Administration, that would leave only the Planning Information Center reporting to the Planner V manager. Because that unit is related primarily to the zoning function, it would be more appropriate to transfer it to the Zoning Administrator in his role overseeing Neighborhood Planning. Since most Planning Information Center staff is provided by Neighborhood Planning staff, there would be an added advantage to having this division under the same manager responsible for Neighborhood Planning. Coordination of staffing and consistency of information provided to the public could be better controlled by a single manager. Since the Zoning Administrator is responsible for Planning Code interpretations, there would be greater assurance that this information is communicated to the staff providing information to the public through the proposed reorganization. The transfer would add a fourth position reporting directly to the Zoning Administrator"s current three.

The net effect of the proposed transfers of functions would be to reduce the number of Planner V managers in the Department by one. This would reduce costs by approximately $132,328 per year at the maximum step. It would also reduce the number of positions reporting directly to the Director from six to five.

To further consolidate administrative functions, the functions and staff currently assigned to the Chief of Operations should also be transferred to the Manager of Finance and Administration. This would add five more positions to the function but would result in all administrative functions being placed under a single manager. Given the Chief of Operations" other responsibilities as Secretary to the Planning Commission, she has little time available for these administrative duties and they have to receive lower priority when compared to preparing Commission agendas, packets and meeting minutes.

Planner IV Supervisors

The Department has 17 Planner IV positions that serve as supervisors to line staff, which is comprised primarily of Planner III"s, II"s, I"s and administrative support staff. Five of these Planner IV positions are in the Major Environmental Analysis Unit. This is more than in any other division of the Department and results in a ratio of 3.2 staff positions for every supervisor in that unit, compared to a median for the rest of the Department of 6.5 staff positions per supervisor. Exhibit 9.2 shows the distribution of Planner IV supervisors to line staff by division based on the Department"s staffing and organization chart provided to the auditors during the audit.

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Exhibit 9.2

Distribution of Supervising Planner IV Positions

Source: Staffing/organization chart provided by the Planning Department
Note: Includes all budgeted positions including authorized but vacant positions

Differences in the nature of work between the Major Environmental Analysis unit and the other units, particularly the Neighborhood Planning unit, do not justify the number of higher cost Planner IVs in that unit. The annual difference in salary and benefits between the Planner III and Planner IV classifications is $17,487at the maximum salary step. If the Major Environmental Analysis Unit applied the median ratio for the rest of the Department of one supervisor for every 6.5 line staff positions, it would require 2.5 Planner IVs rather than the current five. Reducing the number of Planner IVs from five to two in the Major Environmental Analysis Unit would reduce the Department"s salary costs by approximately $52,461 per year at the maximum salary step. Since these positions are presently filled, this could be accomplished over time through attrition.

Conclusion

The Department"s management structure includes six Planner Vs, one Manager of Finance and Administration and the Planning Commission Secretary/Director of Operations. The levels of responsibility between these managers are not equally distributed. The Manager of Finance and Administration has only eight reports, compared to the Department-wide median of 19. Administrative functions are split between three managers, including the Planning Commission Secretary who also serves as the Director of Operations with five reporting employees. One of the six Planner Vs oversees an administrative function, Information Services and the Planning Information Center. This position has 16 reporting positions compared to the median of 20 for all Planner Vs. Consolidating all administrative functions under the Manager of Administration and Finance would make better use of that position and increase the number of positions reporting to a more reasonable 21 rather than eight. It would also facilitate better coordination of all Department internal services. It would leave one Planner V manager with a single division, the Planning Information Center, with 8 positions. By transferring the Planning Information Center to the Zoning Administrator, one Planner V position could be deleted when attrition allows.

The Major Environmental Analysis unit staff includes more Planner IV supervisors than the other units of the Department with one supervisor for every 3.2 line staff position, as compared to the median for the rest of the Department of one supervisor for every 6.5 line staff positions. The nature of the work in the Major Environmental Analysis unit does not justify this higher level of supervisory staffing. By converting three of the five Planner IV positions to Planner III positions, the unit would be more consistent with other divisions of the Department.

Recommendations

Based on the above findings, it is recommended that the Board of Supervisors:

9.1 Delete one Planner V position from the Department"s budget when attrition allows;

9.2 Reclassify downward three Planner IV positions to three Planner III positions from the Department"s budget when attrition allows.

The Planning Director should:

9.3 Restructure the organization by transferring the administrative functions now under the Planning Commission Secretary and the Information Services division now under a Planner V to the Manager of Finance and Administration.

9.4 Transfer responsibility for the Planning Information Center to the Zoning Administrator as manager of the Neighborhood Planning unit.

Costs and Benefits

Benefits of the above recommendations would include consolidated administrative services, all reporting to a single manager, better utilization of the Manager of Finance and Administrative position and more equitable levels of responsibility for all managers and supervisors. Salary and benefits costs would be reduced by approximately $184,789 per year at the maximum salary step ($132,328 for the deleted Planner V + $52,461 for the three Planner IVs reclassified to the Planner III classification).

¹ This position is also Secretary to the Planning Commission

² The Zoning Administrator was excluded from this calculation because the position is not comparable to the other managers in that it functions more as a Deputy Director than manager of a specific operating unit.