Finance Department RestructureCopyrighted
January 3, 2023
City of Dubuque Consent Items # 05.
City Council Meeting
ITEM TITLE: Finance Department Restructure
SUMMARY: City Manager recommending approval to restructure the Finance
Department.
SUGGESTED Suggested Disposition: Receive and File; Approve
DISPOSITION:
ATTACHMENTS:
Description
MVM Memo
Staff Memo
Type
City Manager Memo
Staff Memo
Dubuque
THE CITY OF
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TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Finance Department Restructure
DATE: December 19, 2022
Director of Finance and Budget Jennifer Larson is recommending approval to
restructure the Finance Department based on the need to reduce the workload of the
Director of Finance and Budget, Assistant Director of Finance, and Purchasing and Risk
Manager and create back-ups for each management position. The restructure would
include retitling Director of Finance and Budget to Chief Financial Officer, reclassifying
Assistant Director of Finance to Finance Director, reclassifying the second Assistant
Director of Finance position to Budget Director, and creating a full-time Purchasing and
Safety Coordinator position. In addition, the restructuring plan includes a consulting
contract with a consulting firm to train the new Finance Director. The restructuring plan
would increase the Finance Department personnel complement by 1.00 full-time
equivalent. The reclassifications and the addition of the Purchasing and Safety
Coordinator position would need to be analyzed by the Human Resources Department
to calculate the related salary grade impacts. For the sake of this recommendation, it is
assumed that the Purchasing and Safety Coordinator would be at the same salary
grade as an accountant (GE-30) and that the Chief Financial Officer (GE-44), Budget
Director (GE-41), and Finance Director (GE-41) positions will be paid the same as the
positions they are replacing.
The estimated cost increase includes recurring cost of $79,200 for the full-time
Purchasing and Safety Coordinator and non -recurring cost of $32,000 for a consulting
firm to assist with training new staff. The total additional cost of $111,200 would be
covered by Finance position vacancy savings and the consultant services budget.
I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
Michael C. Van Milligen
MCVM/jml
Attachment
cc: Crenna Brumwell, City Attorney
Cori Burbach, Assistant City Manager
Shelley Stickfort, Human Resources Director
THE CITY OF
Dui E
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: Michael Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: Jennifer Larson, Director of Finance and Budget
SUBJECT: Finance Department Restructure Recommendation
DATE: December 19, 2022
INTRODUCTION
Dubuque
2007.2012.2013
2017*2019
This purpose of this memo is to recommend approval of a restructure of the Finance
Department.
BACKGROUND
The Finance and Budget departments were consolidated in March 2019. Since that time, there
has been significant and ongoing change. In July 2022, a second Assistant Director of Finance
position was approved. In September 2022, the existing Assistant Director of Finance
resigned. To date, neither Assistant Director of Finance position has been filled. In September
2022, a Limited Term Accountant was approved in Utility Billing, however the position has not
been filled. The current personnel complement of the Finance Department is 22.51 full-time
equivalents which is broken down into the following positions:
Accounting:
Type
FTE
Director of Finance and Budget
Full -Time
1.00
Assistant Director of Finance
Full -Time
2.00
Purchasing and Risk Manager
Full -Time
1.00
Confidential Account Clerk
Full -Time
1.00
Accountants
Full -Time
2.00
Senior Payroll Accountant
Full -Time
1.00
Budget/Financial Accounting Analysts
Full -Time
2.00
Accounting Interns
Seasonal
1.00
Budget:
Budget/Financial Accounting Analysts
Full -Time
2.00
Utility Billing:
Utility Billing Supervisor
Full -Time
1.00
Limited Term Accountant
Full -Time
1.00
Account Clerk I
Full -Time
3.00
Cashier
Full -Time
4.00
Utility Billing Intern
Seasonal
0.51
Total Full -Time Equivalents
22.51
DISCUSSION
Based on the need to reduce the workload of the Director of Finance and Budget, Assistant
Director of Finance, and Purchasing and Risk Manager and create back-ups for each
management position to allow for coverage of vacations, conferences, trainings, and other
planned and unplanned leaves, the following restructure is recommended:
1. Retitle Director of Finance and Budget to Chief Financial Officer
2. Reclassify Assistant Director of Finance to Finance Director
3. Reclassify Assistant Director of Finance to Budget Director
4. Create Purchasing/Safety Coordinator position
Retitling the Director of Finance and Budget to Chief Financial Officer would not change
the day-to-day duties of the current director. The Chief Financial Officer would continue to
oversee the Finance Department operations, train, and mentor the Finance Director and
the Budget Director and continue to assist with overall staff management. The
reclassification changes would also allow the Chief Financial Officer to focus on
department -wide and city-wide projects, such as implementing a new purchasing card
provider that works well with the new system. In addition, a request for proposal will be
developed for investment portfolio and debt management software that will integrate with
the Tyler Munis software.
Reclassifying the Assistant Director of Finance to Finance Director would align the position
to the work required. The position is responsible for managing and directing the audit,
writing the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, presenting the financials to the City
Council, implementing new Government Accounting Standard Board Statements, and
managing, training, and mentoring accounting staff.
Reclassifying the second Assistant Director of Finance to Budget Director would allow the
Chief Financial Officer (formerly known as the Director of Finance and Budget) to focus on
higher level budget projections and overall budget review rather than the preparation of the
budget. In addition, the Budget Director would train and supervise the budget financial
analysts and manage the overall budget process including facilitating all budget meetings.
The audit process and preparation of financial statements occurs at the same time as the
budget preparation process. A Budget Director would allow the Chief Financial Officer to
be able to distribute time between both budget preparation and audit management and
financial statement preparation. In addition, the Budget/Financial Analysts are new and
require additional oversight and training than what can currently be provided by the
Director of Finance and Budget. A Budget Director would be able to focus on the budget
process and not have as many interruptions that the Director of Finance and Budget
experiences.
Creation of a Purchasing and Safety Coordinator position would provide necessary assistance
to the Purchasing and Risk Manager. In addition to daily purchasing assistance, the
purchasing and safety coordinator position would also be expected to assist with the City's
current initiative focusing on the City's safety training programs and safety culture across all
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900 plus employees given the Purchasing and Risk Manager currently oversees and leads the
City's safety committee, incident review team, safety training committee and safety audit team.
In conjunction to these activities, the Finance department is also in final review and
preparing to make a recommendation to implement electronic bidding across the City. The
intentions would be to have the purchasing and safety coordinator position provide
necessary assistance to the Purchasing and Risk Manager with implementing and/or
maintaining the electronic bidding process (depending on when the position becomes
filled).
One of the challenges with this restructuring plan includes training the Budget and Finance
Director positions. The Chief Financial Officer would need to train the Budget Director in
the off season of budget and audit (April -July). To alleviate this concern, it is recommended
that a consulting contract be obtained with a consulting firm to train the new Finance
Director during the months of April — July 2023. The estimated cost of training for four
months is $8,000 per month or $32,000.
If the restructure plan would be approved, the recommended personnel complement of the
Finance Department would be 23.51 full-time equivalents and is broken down into the
following positions:
Accounting:
Type
FTE
Chief Financial Officer
Full -Time
1.00
Finance Director
Full -Time
1.00
Budget Director
Full -Time
1.00
Purchasing and Risk Manager
Full -Time
1.00
Confidential Account Clerk
Full -Time
1.00
Purchasing and Safety Coordinator
Full -Time
1.00
Accountants
Full -Time
2.00
Senior Payroll Accountant
Full -Time
1.00
Budget/Financial Accounting Analysts
Full -Time
2.00
Accounting Interns
Seasonal
1.00
Budget:
Budget/Financial Accounting Analysts
Full -Time
2.00
Utility Billing:
Utility Billing Supervisor
Full -Time
1.00
Limited Term Accountant
Full -Time
1.00
Account Clerk I
Full -Time
3.00
Cashier
Full -Time
4.00
Utility Billing Intern
Seasonal
0.51
Total Full -Time Equivalents
23.51
BUDGETIMPACT
If the restructure plan is approved, the reclassifications (Chief Financial Officer, Finance
Director, and Budget Director) and the addition of the Purchasing and Safety Coordinator
position would need to be analyzed by the Human Resources Department to calculate the
related salary grade impacts.
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For the sake of this recommendation, it is assumed that the Purchasing and Safety
Coordinator would be at the same salary grade as an accountant (GE-30) and that the
Chief Financial Officer (GE-44), Budget Director (GE-41), and Finance Director (GE-41)
positions will be paid the same as the positions they are replacing.
The estimated cost increase includes recurring cost of $79,200 for the full-time Purchasing
and Safety Coordinator and non -recurring cost of $32,000 for a consulting firm to assist
with training new staff. The total additional cost of $111,200 would be covered by Finance
position vacancy savings and the consultant services budget.
RECOMMENDATION
I respectfully request approval of Finance Department restructuring plan.
JML
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