At the Sept. 3 budget workshop commissioners discussed staffing and capacity in administrative departments, focusing on human resources and planning.

Why it matters: HR and planning functions touch city operations, payroll, procurement, permitting and developer services. Commissioners said the city should size administrative functions to match service demand and avoid recurring overtime or deferred work.

Planning department request and training: Planning Director (referred to as Mister Malo during the meeting) said the department currently has two planners and a clerk and requested an additional senior planner to handle growing permit workloads and to assist with a land-development regulation update. Planning staff said they have training and conference funds in the draft budget and plan to send staff to state planning conferences for continuing education.

HR capacity and proposed restructuring: HR management said the department has two staff handling HR, risk, pension coordination and related duties; commissioners and the HR manager discussed whether the appropriate approach is promotion of current staff, a new director position, outsourcing some specialist functions, or a hybrid model combining in-house capacity with contracted expert services. Commissioners suggested a comprehensive assessment of department workloads and a citywide staffing review so decisions are consistent across departments.

Next steps: Commissioners asked staff to prepare an assessment of administrative department needs and to correlate overtime and workload with potential new hires across departments. Staff said they would include HR and planning capacity issues in operational and CIP planning and coordinate any restructuring proposals with the final budget.

Ending: No hiring decisions were taken at the Sept. 3 workshop; commissioners asked for analysis to support any structural changes before adding recurring personnel costs to the budget.