When it came to the organizational chart pitched by Mayor Alvin Brown's administration, Bill Bishop didn't agree with where all the boxes were.
So he came up with his own.
Brown's administration is proposing a second phase of a city reorganization to rename certain departments and realign them in areas where efficiencies can be had without pumping in resources.
"If you're going to reorganize, the theory is you do it to improve operations … you put things in the right location," said Bishop, one of several City Council members on a committee reviewing Brown's plan.
Toward the end of Monday's meeting, Bishop pulled out his own chart. Many of the core ideas were similar to Brown's proposal, but there were a few key alterations:
• The Neighborhoods Department becomes Regulatory Compliance (a working name) and handles most of the compliance issues in the city. Animal Care & Protective Services along with Municipal Code Compliance remain there under both the administration and Bishop's proposals, but the council member added Mosquito Control, Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Board. The latter two are what spurred his decision to make changes in the first place. Both were housed under Public Works.
• The Real Estate Department is shifted back as a division of Public Works instead of just an activity, a point several council members said was important during Monday's discussion. "We should have a real estate division," said council member Denise Lee.
• Solid Waste becomes its own division under Public Works, instead of an activity.
• Transportation Planning is a new function that is housed with the Planning and Development Department, another move Bishop has advocated for some time to ensure the city takes part in proper planning. The administration's had a Traffic Engineering activity under Public Works.
Public Works will receive maybe the largest overhaul in both plans. An operations manager position will be created to effectively serve as a deputy director. Such positions were eliminated in past reorganizations.
And, an Infrastructure Division is created in both to house activities like contract maintenance and construction, public buildings and streets and drainage among others. The Environmental Division pitched by the administration was shifted to Regulatory Compliance under Bishop's changes.
The committee signed off on the plan Bishop altered and the legislation now moves to regular committees for further debate.
Karen Bowling, Brown's chief administrative officer, said many of the concepts between what was presented and what was approved remain the same, but the administration wanted to further review the plan.
One late change that likely will be opposed: shifting the cabinet position of director of military affairs, veterans and disabled services along with those functions under Parks, Recreation and Community Development.
"We support it at the cabinet level because it's one of the mayor's top priorities," Bowling said.
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