05/15/2017-CC-Agenda Packet-Work SessionAGENDA
CITY COUNCIL
WORKSESSION
MONDAY, May 15, 2017
6:00 PM
502 ELM STREET
1. Call Meeting to Order.
2. Discussion of Future Personnel Needs.
3. Overview of Items on Regular Agenda.
4. Adjourn.
I, the undersigned authority, do hereby certify that this Notice of Meeting was posted on the
bulletin board, at the City Hall of the City of Sanger, Texas, a place convenient and readily
accessible to the general public at all times, and said notice was posted on the following date
and time: �; 2- //,/ -� 2-0/'z at A-.m. and shall remain
posted until meeting is a ourned.
jf J .5 , •
Cheryl ride, City Secretary
City of Sanger, Texas
This facility is wheelchair accessible and accessible parking spaces are available. Requests for
accommodations or interpretive services must be made 48 hours prior to this meeting. Please contact
the City Secretary's office at (940) 458-7930 for further information.
FUTURE
PERSONNEL
NEEDS
ASSESSMENT
�geh
Texas
Sanger Texas is a growing suburb in the DFW metro area. As
its population grows, more personnel will be required to
maintain service levels. This document is intended to assess and
prioritize future positions across all city departments and to
serve as a comprehensive planning tool for future growth.
Future Personnel Needs Assessment
Future Personnel Needs Assessment
POPULATION BASED PERSONNEL NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR THE CITY
OF SANGER, TEXAS.
Background and Purpose
The city of Sanger has experienced steady growth over the last two decades. The population in 2000 was
4745 according to the U. S. Census Bureau. It grew to 6916 in 2010 and is estimated currently at 8000.
Since 2010 Sanger has experienced a 2.5% growth rate on average each year. Every indication points to
this trend continuing in the decades to come. Appendix A provides an estimate of population growth based on
new housing starts at 75, 100 and 150 housing starts per year.
As the Population grows the demand for services provided by the city increases. This is true across all
departments from police and fire to parks and libraries. Increased service demand often times means an
increase in personnel. Anticipating and prioritizing future personnel increases is necessary to keep up with
demands.
During the budget process each year staff assesses upcoming personnel needs and publishes a five-year
personnel projection. This assessment is intended to go beyond the scope of that five-year projection. The
purpose of this assessment is to provide a detailed and comprehensive look at future personnel needs as
Sanger approaches two population benchmarks. The first benchmark is a population of 10,000 and the
second is a population of 12,000. Population benchmarks were chosen because it is easier to assess service
demand based on the population served than on other factors such as time. In other words, regardless of the
number of years it takes to reach these benchmarks, the service demand required to meet these populations
will generally remain the same.
This report also considers other factors that impact service delivery. Those factors include technology and
automation as well as outsourcing and regionalization. Other factors considered are additional services
beyond what we currently provide. Additional services will be driven not only by increasing population but
also by changing demographics and expectations of our citizens.
The city manager's task is to assess and prioritize personnel needs city
wide and to develop a sustainable plan.
Sustainability is also important as we add new personnel. We must ensure to the extent possible that
revenues will be there in following years to support any positions we add. The last thing we want to do is
add a position and then turn around and eliminate it because of insufficient revenues.
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Future Personnel Needs Assessment
In January of 2017 the city manager tasked department heads with assessing their departments individual
personnel needs as they reached the 10,000 and 12,000 populations benchmarks.
To do this, they were given the following criteria:
® What new personnel will you need to maintain current service levels as you reach the population
benchmarks?
® What new personnel will be required to provide additional services?
® What ancillary cost will there be to adding these positions (vehicles, equipment, office space, training,
etc...)?
® How will adding new personnel improve or maintain productivity and service delivery?
® What other options to adding personnel are available (Automation, Outsourcing, employee sharing,
etc...)?
The city manager then met with department heads to discuss and refine their requests. Based on these
requests, and further discussion with the departments heads, the city manager then tabulated and prioritized
the requests. Finally, the city manager provided his estimate of personnel needs in each department (Table
1).
The increase in population from the current 8000 to the 10,000 benchmark represents a 25% increase in
population. The city managers estimate of additional personnel reflects a 24% increase at the 10,000
benchmark. Department requests at the 10,000 benchmark reflect a 36% increase in personnel.
The period from 10,000 to 12,000 reflects a 20% increase in population. The city manager's estimate of
additional personnel between the 10,000 and 12,000 benchmark is 19%. Department Requests are for a
12% increase in personnel.
Obviously, the department head requests are front loaded in the first period. This is indicative of two things.
First, a desire by department heads to fill new positions sooner than later. Second, a perceived need by
some department heads who believe their department is currently understaffed. Further, department heads
were tasked with only looking at their departments and not the City's overall needs. The city manager's task
is to assess and prioritize personnel needs city wide and to develop a sustainable plan.
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Future Personnel Needs Assessment
Table 1 Department Requests versus City Managers Estimate
10,000 Population
12,000 Population
Department
Current
Employees
City
Manager
Estimate
Department
Request
City
Manager
Estimate lRequest
Department
Projected Year
FY 2017
2022
2026
Police
15
19.5
21
24.5
25
Animal Control
1
1
1
1
1
Fire
12.5
17.5
18.5
22
19.5
Municipal Court
2
2.5
4.5
2.5
4.5
Development
Services
4
5
5
6
6
Streets
4
4
6
6
7
Parks
7
6
7
7
8
Recreation
1
2
2
2
2
Library
4
5.5
6.5
6.5
7.5
Water
6
7
7
7
7
Wastewater
2
3
3
3
3
Electric
7
8
9
9
9.5
Administration
4
5
5
6
6
Public Works Admin.
2
3
3
3
3
Finance
5
6
6
8
8
Fleet Services
2
2
2
2
2
Total
78.5
97
106.5
115.5
119
Increase
24%
36%
19%
12%
Implementation
Sustainability is the key. The City cannot hire new employees unless funds are available to do so. Revenues
must grow in pace with, or faster than, the population to be able to sustain current service levels. This means
Sanger needs to see growth in commercial and industrial property as well as residential. We have been
positioning ourselves well for commercial and industrial growth and our location should attract that type of
growth in the future.
All new revenue cannot be directed to hiring additional employees. First, we must cover increases in the cost
of doing business. Many of these costs we do not control. We also must remain competitive in the salaries
and benefits we offer our current employees. Infrastructure must also be maintained and improved. Any
increase in revenues left after covering these costs can go toward new employees. This report will serve as a
guide for filling new positions within the city as revenues become available.
Page 3
Future Personnel Needs Assessment
Continuing to cross -train employees will also remain important. Even with additional personnel, we are still a
small and lean organization. Having only one employee who knows how to perform a certain function can
lead to a critical failure if that employee leaves or is off for an extended period. Therefore, crosstraining
will remain a priority.
As conditions change, so may the priority of positions to be filled. Some positions may become more or less
critical based on changing conditions. New technology may negate or delay the need for a position. The
ability to outsource a function may make more economic sense. The availability of funds may mean having to
delay the filling of a more expensive position. This report is intended to serve as a guide and will be
updated periodically to reflect changing conditions.
Adding police officers also means adding vehicles and office space.
Because of the additional associated costs, these are some of the most
expensive positions to fill.
Department Level Analysis
Police Department
Public safety is one of the core services provided by the City and is, therefore, a top priority. The citizens of
Sanger enjoy a rapid police response to calls for service. To maintain response times and service levels will
require adding more officers as the population increases. As we approach the 10,000 benchmark, we plan
on adding a lieutenant, a sergeant and three patrol officers. The lieutenant and sergeant positions will
provide more supervisory coverage on nights and weekends. The new police officer positions will provide
additional patrol coverage during peak hours. One of the new officers will also be assigned to work
warrants in addition to patrol duties. Adding officers also means adding vehicles and office space. Because
of the additional associated costs, these are some of the most expensive positions to fill. Doing so will require
a healthy growth in general fund revenues to both fill and sustain these positions.
Fire Department
The Fire department covers an area and population much larger than the city limits. Because of this, the
department experiences a greater run volume than what would normally be seen in a city this size. In the last
decade, the department has converted from an all -volunteer force to a combination career/volunteer force
with twelve and a half full time positions. This is due primarily to assuming emergency medical transport
duties. Our current staffing levels rarely allow us to respond to multiple calls at the same time. Fortunately,
Denton County has an excellent mutual aid system but units responding from other cities are delayed because
of distance. As we approach 10,000 in population we need to add more personnel until we are staffing six
personnel per shift. This means adding an additional six full time employees. We also need to increase our
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Future Personnel Needs Assessment
shift level officer corps. Right now, one lieutenant oversees all three shifts. As we grow, we need to have an
officer on each shift. We plan on adding one position each year to the fire department as long as revenues
will support the additional personnel.
Municipal Court
One area where it might make sense to share an employee is between municipal court and the police. This
position would be for a certified officer who would work patrol for the police and also serve warrants and
act as bailiff for the court. We have seen in the past, when officers have been on light duty, that proactively
working warrants pays off and the extra revenue would help pay for this position. However, just working
warrants would not require a full-time position.
Economic and Development Services
Over the last year these departments were combined and restructured. They are also in the process of
launching software that will automate and streamline the permitting process. We have also just contracted
with a GIS tech to provide GIS services. Long term, this position will need to be converted to a full-time
position. On the economic development side, we would like to add an economic development specialist
position to handle some of the workload now that the director has taken on the additional responsibilities of
managing development services as well as economic development.
Instead of increasing manpower
materials and
Streets
what is needed in streets is at
contract maintenance.
Instead of increasing manpower, what is needed in streets is an increase in materials and contract
maintenance. We have been steadily increasing the maintenance budget but still typically run out of
maintenance funds before year's end. For example, we added an additional $50,000 this year for seal
coating. Also, many of the jobs require expensive equipment that we do not own and have to be contracted
out anyway. Therefore, we plan on adding maintenance money for routine repairs and contract maintenance.
We do plan to restore one position in streets. This employee has been on loan to public works administration
to act as an inspector on capital projects. The inspector's position will become a permanent position under the
public works director and the street position will be refilled.
Parks
Park maintenance is an area where it makes sense to contract the work out than to hire additional personnel.
The work is very seasonal in nature and economically it does not make sense to maintain a large staff year-
round. This year we have contracted out almost all of the mowing. This has allowed us to reduce staffing by
two full time and two-part time employees. It has also allowed us to concentrate the efforts of the remaining
Page 5
Future Personnel Needs Assessment
staff on higher level projects such as weed control and fertilization, field maintenance and irrigation. If this
experiment works, then these open positions will be moved out of salary and in to contract mowing in next
year's budget. In the near term, we will focus on increasing the skill and certification levels of the existing
parks personnel. Longer term there may be a need for an administrative assistant to be shared among
several departments.
Recreation
As we begin to offer more recreational services, we will need to start adding part time recreation aides. It is
anticipated that up to two FTE may be needed, however, these positions will be staffed by part time
personnel.
Library
One part time library assistant is planned in the next couple of years. This will allow us to expand library
evening hours. When the library is expanded, it is anticipated that another full-time librarian will be needed
to service a larger customer base. Later additional part time staff may be required also as programs are
expanded and the customer base grows.
Water
In the near term, we plan on adding a meter technician to the water department. This will allow us to
calibrate, service and rebuild meters in-house. It will also free up other personnel for system maintenance.
Unless the territory we currently service with water expands significantly, additional personnel are not
anticipated.
Wastewater
In conjunction with the expansion of the wastewater treatment plant we anticipate adding another plant
operator. This will allow us to expand operations from five days a week to seven. This will also cut down on
overtime. Having someone at the plant every day will be necessary for maintenance purposes given the
increased operations and different processes to be used in the new plant.
Electric
In the near -term, the electric department will need to staff a meter tech position to service and maintain the
more complicated digital meters currently in use. This person would also be trained in servicing other technical
pieces of electronic equipment. Farther out, an additional groundman position may be needed depending on
workload.
As the organization grows and becomes more complex it will be necessary
to group some of the smaller departments under an assistant city manager
to maintain effective oversight and leadership.
Future Personnel Needs Assessment
In the near term, we plan to add an assistant city manager's position to administration. One reason for doing
this is span of control. As the organization grows and becomes more complex it will be necessary to group
some of the smaller departments under an assistant city manager to maintain effective oversight and
leadership. A second reason for establishing this position is to ensure stability and a smooth transition if the
city manager leaves or retires. Right now, should the city manager leave, there is no one employee in the city
that is up to speed on everything. This could lead to a stalling of some programs and projects for months as a
new manager is hired and gets up to speed. Farther out, it will become necessary to add a social
media/marketing position.
For the past two years, we have been utilizing a street department employee as an inspector for capital
projects. With the number of large and long term projects coming up, we need to create an inspectors
position so that we can fill the position in streets and return that department to full staffing. We are also
looking into contracting with an engineer to provide limited review of subdivision plans and complex
development projects.
In the near term, we plan to add a utility billing manager. This will be the first step in creating two distinct
departments under the finance director, finance and utility billing. Farther out we need to add an accountant
on the finance side to help meet generally accepted accounting principles. We may also need to add
another customer service representative to meet increased workload. One option we are looking at is adding
an automated teller. The automated teller would replace our current night drop and drive through. The
automated teller would automatically post payments to the customer's account thereby cutting down on the
workload of having to enter them manually as we do now. This would decrease the need for additional utility
billing staff.
Fleet Services
We currently fund two mechanics positions in fleet services. We have only had one of these positions filled
for the last three years based on workload. As vehicles and equipment become more complex we are seeing
the need to outsource many more repairs. Also, other departments have taken on the responsibility of
maintaining their small equipment, reducing the workload in fleet services. As our vehicle fleet grows,
however, we will need to fill the second mechanics position.
Page 7
Future Personnel Needs Assessment
Outsourced Services
Solid waste and information technology support are two services that we currently outsource. It is not
anticipated that we will bring these services in-house in the foreseeable future. In fact, as discussed
elsewhere, we are looking for opportunities to create efficiencies by outsourcing other services when and
where it makes sense. Regionalization of services may also be an option in the future. However, given our
geographical location, regionalization may not be feasible for many of the services we provide.
As we grow the structure of city government will need to change.
Other Changes
As we grow there will be changes in the structure of city government. Some of these changes have already
been discussed such as the division of services between finance and utility billing. Human resources will also
become a more autonomous division although it will likely remain under the overall control of administration.
At some point, custodial and building maintenance needs will outpace the current staffs' ability to fulfill. These
services will likely be outsourced as opposed to adding additional staff. Social media is currently managed
by one of the full-time librarians with help from others. Eventually the city will need a full time social
media/marketing manager.
Conclusion
Maintaining adequate staff across all departments can be a juggling act. In many cities, staffing gets out of
balance for a number of reasons. Failing to plan for increased staffing in a growing city can lead to some
departments becoming under staffed while others become over staffed. This plan has been developed to be
used as a roadmap to help ensure that does not happen. It gives both staff and the Council some idea of
what additional personnel needs will look like as we prepare future budgets.
The chart below shows the new positions expected to be filled as we approach the 10,000 population
benchmark. Based on the population projections in appendix A that should occur around 2022. Therefore,
the chart has been broken down per year from 2018 to 2022.
Projected Year
Department
Police Police Officer
Sergeant 1/2
Animal Control _
Fire 4NWFire Officer Fire Officer
Police Officer Police Officer
Firefighter Firefighter
Lieutenant
Firefi
Future Personnel Needs Assessment
Municipal C
Developme
Services
Streets
Parks
Recreation
Library
Water
Wastewatei
Electric
Administrat
Public Worl<
Finance
Fleet Service
Hurt
it
Marshall1/2
Economic
Development
Specialist
2 Rec. Aides
PT Librarian
Librarian
Meter Tech
Plant Operator
Meter Tech.
on
s Admin. Inspector
ACM
_
Utility Billing
Manager
�s
Below are the positions expected to be needed as we approach the 1 2,000-population benchmark. It should
be noted that anticipating personnel needs this far out is problematic and the personnel requirements in this
period will likely change the most over time.
Department 2023 2024 2025 2026
Projected Year
2 Police
Police Detective Police Officer Asst. Chief Officers
Animal Control
Fire
Municipal Court
Development Services
Streets
Parks
4P
Recreation
Library
Water
Wastewater
Electric
Administration
Public Works Admin.
Asst. Chief Fire Officer Fire Officer Fire Officer
Admin.
Assistant
GIS Tech
Social Media
Manager
PT. Librarian
Groundman
2 Street Maint.
PT. Librarian
Admin. Asst.
Page 9
0
Future Personnel Needs Assessment
Customer
Accountant Service
Increased staffing is always dependent on increased and sustainable revenues. There are numerous cases of
cities adding staff in "the good times" only to have to defer raises, furlough or lay off staff when revenues
falter. This is particularly challenging in the General Fund where revenues tend to fluctuate with the economy.
To make the problem worse, most of the positions called for are in the general fund or partially supported by
the General Fund. Public Safety services are the core services of the General Fund and therefore, take
priority. Public Safety positions are also the most expensive to fill. This means it may be necessary to defer
filling a new position until the revenue stream to pay for it has been proven. Therefore, there should be no
assumption that positions listed to be filled in a certain year will, in fact, be filled that year.
This document provides a blueprint for adding additional staff as the city of Sanger continues to grow. While
not set in stone, it aids in prioritizing new positions across all departments. It also addresses alternatives to
adding additional personnel where feasible. It is intended to be a living document and will be updated
periodically to reflect changing needs and priorities.
City of Sanger Organizational Chart 2017
jMayor and
I Council
City Boards and
Attorney Commissions
City
Manager
Development
Administration
and Support
Finance
Public Works
Electric
Parks $ Library
y
Municipal
Court
Fire/EMS
Police
Services &
Economic
Services
Recreation
Development
City Secretary
Finance
Pubic Works
Electric Utility
Parks R
Recreation Library
Court Clerk
Fire Chief
Police Chief
elopment
serve
DCesI. economic
DeDirwoem
Director
Director
Director
Director
Director
Director
Information
ACCOUnefg
\Voter/
`�/arelayse
Llbrary
Parks Servkes
Court Services
Fire
Imesigatiom
Buslness
Reamitment
Technology
Wastewater
and Retention
Co .dwl
Customer
Streets
Line
Line
Recreation Social Media
EMS
Sooal
Resource
Community
lloslon
Service
Officer
Human
Resances
UtilityBIIII
"g
Vehicle
Mointe-me
Special Evenn
Eme,ge.y
hbnogemem
Povol
ImpecHom
Purdaslrg /
Emi—entol/
Code
Plowing &
Payab el
Enforcement
ZO"I N
Payroll
Animal Control
Page 10
Future Personnel Needs Assessment
Appendix A
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
Future Population Growth Estimates
I
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
■ Projected Increase by 75 Housing Starts (3.3/household)
■ Projected Increase by 100 Housing Starts (3.3/household)
* Projected increase by 150 Housing Starts (3.3/household)
Page 1 1