Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC AG PKT 2005-09-12 #O City of Seal Beach Agenda Report Date: September 12, 2005 To: Honorable Mayor and City Council A . From: John B. Bahorsk City Manager Subject: Proposed Change in City Hall Hours of Operation SUMMARY OF REQUEST: At the August 8, 2005 City Council meeting, Mayor Antos requested that a change in City Hall hours be discussed by City Council. Staff has prepared the following information to facilitate that discussion. BACKGROUND: The issue of changing the City Hall hours of operation is not a new issue and has been discussed several times. Currently City Hall is open 52 hours a week, 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday and Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. These hours were established to provide additional customer service to the users of City Hall services. In • order to make the 52 hour schedule work, staff had to work a non - uniform work schedule. That means some employees work a 4 day /10 hour plan, 5 day /8 hour plan or a 9 day /80 hour plan. One negative impact of the 52 -hour schedule is that it has created a misperception that employees are not working or are somehow cheating the system. The reality is that the multiple schedules that must be worked to keep the 52 -hour schedule have employees working non - traditional hours. On certain days staffing levels at City Hall are very lean. Further, on any given day City Hall staffing is reduced due to sickness, vacation, off site training, meetings or vacancies. As an example, there are two professional planners at City Hall. If one person is out ill, on vacation or out of the office, there is a 50% reduction in staffing for that department and will impact customer service. There have been rare occasions when no planners are available; however, that is the trade off for having less staff and devoting those resources to areas such as capital projects. In 2001, Interim City Manager Don McIntyre raised the issue of City Hall hours of operation and recommended that the three different work schedules be eliminated and that City Hall hours be reduced to a 40 -hour schedule. Interim City Manager McIntyre cited scheduling problems and inter - departmental communication as primary reasons for changing the hours of operation. In 2002 during the City's budget deliberations, AGENDA ITEM • 1 one of the suggested budget saving strategies was to return to a traditional 40 -hour City Hall schedule. The advantages cited were: > It would make more City Hall staff available because all employees at City Hall would be working the same schedule. > The reduced hours would save in utility costs. > It would address the community frustration on days when City Hall is understaffed. At that time it was projected that a savings of $7,000 per year could be achieved by reducing the City Hall hours of operation. Downsides do exist if City Hall hours are reduced to 40 hours per week and the City Hall staff work schedule returns to a traditional 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. plan. The disadvantages are: > Employee morale could be impacted, the flexible schedule is very common in other cities and recruiting could be affected. It should be noted that there are numerous other factors that affect employee morale that are more important than the flexible scheduling. > Returning to a traditional 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule will impact customer service for some segments of the Seal Beach community. Specifically, the building contractors typically are the primary beneficiaries of the extended hours of operations. In addition, when parking permits are renewed the additional hours are helpful to the residents. It is possible to work around this issue by providing a one -day Saturday opening of City Hall to sell the parking permits. > Change of hours at City Hall could be disruptive for the community. Many community members have become accustomed to the extended hours at City Hall. Frankly, it has reached the point where the misperception cannot be overcome by any logical argument, therefore placing all City Hall employees on one set schedule would stop the endless debate about who is working and on what schedule. The question is do these disadvantages outweigh the complaints about the schedule staff works within City Hall. Perceptions about staffing and employee hours of work have existed for years and establishing one schedule for all employees will help to eliminate this misperception. This will however require a change to City Hall hours of operation.. RECOMMENDATION: • City Council has the following options: 1. Make no change to the City Hall hours of operations. 2. Change the City Hall hours of operation to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. 3. Change the City Hall hours of operation to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, for a one -year period and have staff return with a report on the impact.