Development Services Review. Final Report. Zucker July 2016

 Engineering Staff has many years of experience (Asst. Engineer - 15 years; Assoc. Engineer - 10 years);  The Division has previously used contract staff to address short-term increases in workload and is currently preparing RFPs to expand use; and  An “Engineer of the Day” is assigned to be the primary technical expert to address customer and staff inquiries.

C.

O RGANIZATIONAL I SSUES

Leadership and Supervision Based on the comments provided by customers during the focus group meetings and written comments provided in customer and employee surveys there is a very high level of dissatisfaction with the service being provided by this Division. Customers complain of failure to meet turnaround time commitments, incomplete plan reviews and the perception that there is a “bottle-neck” in the process at the Senior Civil Engineer level in the organization. Internal staff complains they are the ones who must contact customers to alert them that their engineering project won’t be reviewed on time and that it is difficult to get timely and consistent direction from the supervisor. We believe there are a number of contributing factors that have led to this perception of poor service from this Division. However, ultimately it is the responsibility of the Manager and Supervisor to provide the leadership necessary to correct the problems. The most apparent issue we observed is the lack of decision-making authority that has been given to the Professional Engineers on staff. It is understandable that a supervisor would exercise closer review of staff work when a new employee joins the section. However, in the case of the current staffing, these Professional Engineers have been with the City for 15 and 10 years and should no longer warrant micromanagement. If staff is continuing to make significant errors in completing their daily assignments, then a definitive course of action needs to be initiated. Generally, this begins by establishing clear performance expectations, providing training and direction as needed and gaining a commitment by all participants that the Division’s performance must improve in the future. 76. Recommendation: The Public Works Director and the Senior Civil Engineer should develop a comprehensive improvement plan for employee performance that will allow the Senior Civil Engineer to delegate appropriate decision making authority to his staff.

Morgan Hill, California

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Zucker Systems