Re: a question for city supervisor

[bill london <london@moscow.com>]

I recently posted my concerns about the city budget and specifically the cost
of the assistant city supervisor (my post is at the end of this message).
Gary Riedner, Moscow's administrator, responds below.
----
Gary Riedner wrote:
I appreciate the question regarding the Assistant City Supervisor position.
You are correct that the re-assignment of Randy Rice is to a "Special Projects
Manager" type position. The bulk of his responsibilities will be to manage the
planning and construction of the Hamilton Indoor Recreation Facility and 1912
Project management. It is unfortunate that his duties are being confused with
the position of Assistant City Supervisor.

In response to the balance of your question, you will also find no other city
in Idaho that has a “City Supervisor”. That term is used by both the cities of
Moscow and Pullman. It is the equivalent position to a City Administrator. The
city administrator position typically is maintained to provide professional
city management and administration services to assist part-time elected
officials. Virtually every city of any size in every state either has
full-time elected executive leadership (Mayor) or at least part-time
professional administration to assist the part-time executive.

At this time, the City of Coeur d’Alene has a Deputy City Administrator
position. I have been informed by Tom Courtney, Twin Falls City Manager, that
the City of Twin Falls is in the process of approving a similar position in
the next fiscal-year budget. So although the term may not be the same, the
position is.

The position in Moscow was created several years ago in response to the need
to have a person available to assist with the functions typically undertaken
by city administration, such as contract administration, data gathering and
comparison, project management, website design, city clerk functions, city
code maintenance, etc.

The type of work done by the Assistant City Supervisor is not static. The
functions change in response to the types of issues which are present at the
time. For instance the Assistant City Supervisor works on a regular basis with
Information Systems to develop the City’s communication networks, including
geographic information systems, cell phone tower installation and software
maintenance. This has allowed the City to get by with one full-time
information systems employee, which is less than most surrounding entities.

The Assistant City Supervisor also assists other departments in their
functions on an assigned basis. Examples, though not exhaustive, include
budget preparation assistance to the Finance Department, grants assistance to
Parks and Recreation, Police and Arts Departments and public survey services
to the Legal Department.

Our City is not that much more complex than other municipalities in Idaho.
However, our elected officials and citizens expect the City to be managed in
the most efficient way possible. In some other municipalities they utilize
other forms of management which may include positions which we do not have
here in Moscow. That is not to say that those other forms of management are
better or worse than ours here in Moscow, only different.

I would also draw your attention to the fact that according to our most recent
data, the City of Moscow employs fewer employees per thousand-person
population than any comparable city, after taking into account adjustments for
full-time fire departments vs. our volunteer department.

All in all, I believe that the services provided by the Assistant City
Supervisor position result in the most efficient use of our resources. Again,
thanks for your question.

Bill London's original post:

>
> Regarding the new budget for Moscow:
> Moscow is slated to have 2 assistant city supervisors.  I read that no
> other town in Idaho of similar size has even one assistant city
> supervisor.
> I can understand the creation of the second assistant city supervisor
> job (to be filled by Randy Rice to direct the completion of various
> special projects).
> What I can't understand is the justification for the existance of the
> first assistant city supervisor.  What problems or complexities does
> Moscow have that other Idaho cities do not have that require the
> taxpayers to hire the first assistant city supervisor?
> BL