The finance committee voted to forward several personnel reclassifications after department leaders described operational needs and projected budget impacts.

Animal shelter staff and the CAO asked the committee to reclassify a vacant building attendant to a kennel worker, citing rising shelter caseloads and the need for direct animal care and enrichment to reduce kennel stress. Staff said the change is budget neutral for the current fiscal year and that the vacant post will be filled through regular posting and testing procedures. ‘‘Kennel workers... are not only cleaning the kennels, they're also providing enrichment by taking them out,'' a shelter representative said during the presentation.

Separately, IT leaders proposed reclassifying a supervisor of applications — public safety to supervisor of applications — general IT. Staff said the new role would provide broader, city‑wide application oversight, create redundancy to improve continuity, and allow some in‑house programming (for example, work on the Voci platform) that could reduce external vendor costs. Presenters estimated modest salary savings from the reclassification.

Committee members asked for additional details before final approval at the council level: specifically, job descriptions and the salary amounts that were not included in the draft resolutions. The chair asked staff to provide the job descriptions to the committee as follow‑up.

Why it matters: The changes aim to address operational gaps (animal welfare at the shelter) and to create administrative efficiencies in IT while remaining neutral to the current budget.

What happens next: The committee’s favorable recommendation advances the reclassifications; staff will provide the requested job descriptions and follow standard hiring procedures for the vacant posts.

Attribution: All direct quotes and descriptions are drawn from the committee transcript of Nov. 1.