Subcommittee releases findings

Organizational Review Subcommittee member and Commissioner Phillip Younger presented the final draft of the overall town departmental review Monday, Nov. 1.

Below is a brief description of some of the suggestions offered by seven Longboat Key residents who were chosen to act as consultants and review seven town departments. Town Manager Bruce St. Denis also made follow-up comments to the suggestions offered by the consultants.

Finance Department
RECOMMENDATION: Create Finance Committee (or expand role of Investment Committee).
ST. DENIS: Not seeking a finance committee, since staff is well served by our financial consultants and internal auditors.

Human Resources
RECOMMENDATION: Hire an administrative assistant to be utilized by the town clerk and human-resources manager.
ST. DENIS: Agree with need, but funds not currently available. Fortunately, both the town clerk and HR manager are excellent and put forth the extra effort.

Management Information Systems Department
RECOMMENDATION: Pursue and promote inter-departmental strategic partnership to:
• Motivate department heads to share plans.
• Improve inter-departmental communications.
• Assign individuals from IT to other departments.
ST. DENIS: Will be performed by the management team as part of restructuring of manager meetings.

Planning, Zoning and Building Department
RECOMMENDATION: Continue organization training on customer service/service excellence and target training to what the department’s specific mission is as well as organizational wide customer service.
ST. DENIS: Concur that additional customer service training would be useful in reinforcing our commitment to customer service. In particular, we will be seeking instructors that specialize in customer-service training in a regulatory environment.

Public Tennis Center
RECOMMENDATION: Increase tennis center promotion — summer time use; tourist places (hotels, motels, time-share).
ST. DENIS: Agreed. Working with chamber of commerce to improve our effectiveness in promoting local businesses when we host tournaments.

Fire Rescue Department
RECOMMENDATION: Lack of formal procedures and weak policies may be contributory factors for communication difficulties and low morale. Individuals cannot be recognized for their achievements if they are not made responsible for specific tasks.
ST. DENIS: Policy and procedures being updated as related to operations. Chief has filled openings and reorganized shifts to balance skills and experience.

Police Department
RECOMMENDATION: Police visibility could be further improved by introducing additional bicycle policing in neighborhood areas where residents could become familiar with officers by sight.
ST. DENIS: No comments.

Public Works Department
RECOMMENDATION: The town manager or Town Commission should examine the need for dedicated financial support for the now more sophisticated utilities department, its significant income stream and the need to issue revenue bonds from time-to-time.
ST. DENIS: Finance department may have some opportunities to reorganize in the near future. We will consider this issue as decisions are made.

To read the complete 15-page document, click here.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].