It has been said that if something is repeated enough, it must be true.
I tend to be a bit of a purist and expect that the truth will always find its way to the top. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case and one of the local urban legends has taken on a life of its own.
Since 2011, the staffing levels within the city have changed significantly. As faithful readers of the Star-Herald know, the city has had significant reductions in revenues from the state. To balance the services citizens receive while continuing to hold the line on property taxes, nearly 40 changes have occurred to staffing levels, responsibilities and titles. Given that the city had 104 full-time employees in 2010, it is not surprising that all of the details of the changes are not widely known or understood by citizens.
Some of the changes have been reasonably small (hiring public safety dispatchers instead of sworn police officers). Others have been complex (eliminating the public works director and foreman in exchange for a deputy public works director reporting to the solid waste director who is also overseeing Public Works). Some have involved the elimination of excess management levels (eliminating four of the six supervising sergeants in a department that had only 12 patrol officers).
When all the changes are calculated, including the additional payments being made, the savings have been significant ($1,009,448 per year). The savings are repeated every year. A complete copy of the changes can be found on the city’s new website www.presqueislemaine.gov. We have also completely eliminated nearly one out of every five full-time jobs.
One of the most misunderstood changes is the creation of the deputy city manager’s position. Created at the direction and desire of the City Council, the position is actually replacing a couple of positions. Prior to the position being created, the city had a human resources director, a city planner and an additional stipend being paid for one of the department heads to be the acting city manager. Later, the position of buildings and facilities manager was also eliminated and some of that work was also incorporated into the deputy city manager’s daily work. Simply stated, the deputy city manager is carrying the work load of several positions that the city used to have. If the city went back to the old setup, it would actually increase the costs, not decrease the costs.
Having a designated second in charge is not new for the city. In the past, the person performing this function was provided an additional stipend. The “acting city manager” and pay was there in the past. That individual’s other job title was what the public was aware of instead of their secondary role and pay.
It has been suggested that we should change the title to eliminate the public’s misunderstanding. I think the better strategy is to make sure the public knows the correct information instead. At the end of the day, I think most people care more about the $1,000,000 per year that has been saved by the personnel changes made and a lot less about an employee’s title.
When all is said and done, given the reductions in staffing levels, there are very few employees that are actually only performing one job. A job title in our organization might give you an idea of what the person does part of the time but it won’t tell you the whole story.
Jim Bennett is Presque Isle’s city manager. He can be reached at 760-2785 or via email at jbennett@presqueisleme.us .
