AGENDA TITLE:
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Receive the Human Resources Assessment Report (CM)
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MEETING DATE:
February 11, 2025
PREPARED BY:
Laurie Montes, Assistant City Manager-Part-Time
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RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Receive the Human Resources Assessment Report.
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
On September 3, 2024, the City Manager entered into a professional services agreement with Municipal Resource Group, LLC (MRG) for Human Resources (HR) On Demand Consulting Services. Since then, Council and City employees worked with Teri Silva, MRG Affiliated Consultant on numerous issues. MRG was tasked with preparing an assessment of the HR Division’s organizational structure and capacity, analyzing work functions to include best practices and workload. To accomplish this review, MRG conducted interviews with staff, Department Directors and the Human Resources Manager before retirement. MRG compared the HR Division configuration and staffing to comparable cities and national standards. In addition, MRG reviewed department administrative policies, the protocol manual and personnel rules, the Executive Management Statement of Benefits and many other HR documents.
MRG found that the City has outdated policies and procedures that have not been updated in years or decades. Additionally, there is a lack of training and staff often rely on past practice which may be inconsistent with current law or best practice. Staffing levels are inadequate to maintain daily transactions and to develop policies and procedures to establish a high functioning department that implements best practices in human resource administration.
The City of Lodi currently has 461 authorized full-time-equivalent (FTE) positions and 5 are allocated to HR. Lodi has one of the lowest ratios of human resources staff per 100 employees among the comparable agencies used in the recent market survey for salary adjustments. The only cities that have a lower ratio are those that have less than 400 FTEs. All comparable cities dedicate Human Resources as a Department with the exception of the cities below 400 FTE and the City of West Sacramento. The report provides detail on this information as well as additional detail including where the various cities risk functions are managed and the number of Memoranda of Understanding that are managed by their HR staff.
Based on this analysis, MRG prepared a series of recommendations to improve HR operations and reduce liability. The report recommends that the HR Division transition to a department that includes the Risk Division. MRG finds that there is overlap of duties and coordination required between these divisions. With additional staffing, employees could develop their skills in both the HR and Risk disciplines providing opportunities for succession planning and there is potential to streamline operations. Other organizational structures are discussed, but elevating HR to a department will create a strategic partner in the organization with the ability to focus on the complex and critical functions that better meets the needs of operating departments.
STRATEGIC VISION:
3A. Fiscal Health: Promote City's transparency & fiscal fluency.
FISCAL IMPACT:
At this time, the Council is being asked to consider the assessment and provide direction to staff. Any direction about adding or changing allocated positions will be recommended to Council for approval at a later date. Any recommendations will come with a look at the long-range fiscal impacts of such a decision.
FUNDING AVAILABLE:
Not applicable.
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Scott R. Carney
City Manager