COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT "SUPER" DEPARTMENT: City Administrator Guillen's COGNITIVE FAILURES

City of Carmel-by-the-Sea
City Council
Special Meeting
Thursday, June 22, 2006

At the Special City Council meeting on 22 June 2006, City Administrator Rich Guillen gave a presentation on the City’s Organizational Structure, including Historical Structure and Proposed Community Development Department Structure.


City Organizational Structure:

Historical Structure:
Public Works Director, Community Planning & Building Director and Forest, Parks & Beach Director

New Proposed Community Development “Super” Department:
Community Development Director oversees Planning Services Manager, Building Official, Public Works Superintendent and City Forester.

During City Administrator Rich Guillen’s presentation, he claimed an estimated cost of $679,092/year for the Historical Structure, whereas his proposed Community Development “Super” Department would cost the city an estimated $497,760/year, a cost savings of $181,332. However, for Fiscal year 2006/07, Salary/Benefits for Community Planning & Building Department ($552,398), Building Maintenance Services Department ($196,989), Public Works Department ($631,941) and Forest, Parks & Beach ($275,075), is a total of $1,656,403. In Fiscal Year 2005/06 the actual total cost was $1,595,523. With the proposed Community Development Director job description and the salary/benefit unknown, it is unknown if there would be any cost savings at all, especially given the current reality that the City presently does not have Directors for Public Works, Community Planning & Building and Forest, Parks & Beach Departments. Additionally, instead of the historical structure of 3 Directors responsible to the City Administrator, according to City Administrator Guillen, the new “Super” department structure would have 1 Director responsible to the City Administrator. However, as City Councilman Michael Cunningham emphasized, the Historical Structure does not reflect current reality; that is, presently, the city does not have a Public Works Director, a Community Planning & Building Director or a Forest, Parks & Beach Director. Ergo, instead of a change from 3 Directors (Managers) to 1 Director, it is an ADDITION of 1 Community Development Director and a cost INCREASE of presumably over $100,000/year.

Ironically, City Administrator Rich Guillen stated at another time during the meeting: “...You know, 2 years ago, it was very painful, you all were here and we had to eliminate 20 positions and so forth. If you start increasing hours, adding staff back, and so forth, we are just making the same mistake that was made in 1993 when they eliminated a lot of positions and then staff grew up to 2004, then 2004 came along, we had more expenditures than revenues, mostly staff and we had to cut. And I see this Council…you’re starting to make the same mistake...”

Additionally, City Administrator Guillen stated ”the City of Monterey is actually proposing the same thing.” Actually, the City Council of the City of Monterey did adopt City Manager Fred Meurer’s recommendation to combine their Public Works Department and their Community Development Department. However, in the case of Monterey, their budget reduction plan of $1,520,000 for FY 2006/07 included the elimination of the Public Works Director at $136,300. Ergo, pragmatic necessity resulted in the combining of the pre-existing Public Works Department and the pre-existing Community Development Department under one Director. Interestingly, in his Budget Message, City Manager Meurer stated, “staff has worked very hard to minimize the impact of these reductions on core City services such as public safety and the library.”

City Administrator Guillen: “...the Community Development Director...mainly gets involved with the budgetary, personnel management and handling any complaints...and really get it off my desk.”

Interpretation: City Administrator Rich Guillen is compensated over $100,000/year to administer a city of 1 square mile, 4,000 residents, 66 Full-Time Employees and an $11.8 million annual budget. Yet he wants another employee, a Community Development Director, to administer to Planning, Building, Public Works and Forestry...so Guillen can get it off his desk. SUGGESTION: If Rich Guillen does not feel competent to manage the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea under current conditions, then perhaps he should resign and allow the City Council to find a City Administrator who will competently manage Carmel-by-the-Sea as it is.