Travis County Commissioners Court
May 16, 2006
Item 31
Number 31, the matter involving county reorganization initiatives. And their various subpoints, can we think of this over lunch and this afternoon decide whether to bring this item up or not? Here is my recommendation on that. What I want to do is lay out what I知 thinking, get the court to think over that between now and later this afternoon and call this item up, is that okay? What I have in mind is one, us bringing on board two executive managers. One in each of the two functional areas. Number 2 he is the Commissioners court members already on the subcommittees of those two, you are talking about criminal justice planning and emergency medical services? Is that the name of the other one? Those two subcommittees we have two members of the court on there. What we would do, what each subcommittee of the court would do is to look at the latest job description and figure out whether that's appropriate, whether it ought to be amended -- amended. And in addition to the subcommittee of the court, we already had either an executive manager or a coordinator assigned to the functional area. We would assign, though, one other executive manager for coordinator. And by that I mean that kara coleburn serve as executive manager for coordinator already. She would be on those subcommittees. We would pull from the other owe who is on emergency planning, is that pete? Must be pete.
>> that leaves four others. So either we can get two of them on each subcommittee or one of them. Okay? Following so far?
>> well, kind of. So in terms of -- to help -- to help massage the em, you are proposing related to -- to emergency services, you would use the subcommittee which is the e.m.s. Subcommittee which is me and Gerald, and then we would be pulling pete in to help on that one and then I guess are you talking about the subcommittee related to --
>> probably add another two.
>> overcrowding, you and Margaret?
>> I知 not saying which of the others. One is automatically on there already. So that person for sure.
>> I知 trying to figure out if you are talking about two subcommittees of the court or one subcommittee of the court?
>> there's a criminal justice planning subcommittee already exists you use that one.
>> yes.
>> there's an emergency medical services already in existence, we would use that one.
>> okay.
>> on criminal justice planning is Biscoe and.
>> Margaret.
>> Margaret.
>> and carol coleburn is the coordinator.
>> got it. Trying to sort out the names.
>> emergency medical services you and Commissioner Daugherty and pete is already on there. That leaves four either executive managers or coordinators and I guess it would make sense to ask two of them to be on criminal justice planning and two to be on emergency medical services. That uses all six of them. And what I would do is -- is look at the job description. Already in place because we posted both of these jobs before. And figure out whether that's sufficient or should be modified and should be modified just recommend to the court, so the whole court can take action. Then either we repost those positions or start interviewing the ones that have applied. And the subcommittee would -- would try to -- try to short list down to the best I would say five to seven applicants for the whole Commissioners court to interview. My -- my concern -- my -- my -- my goal is if we do it this way, we get the initial work done and at some point real soon we hand the Commissioners court five to seven names for c.j.s. Executive manager, five to seven names for [indiscernible] managerial services, [indiscernible]
>> before weren't we going out for an e.m. For a combined thing, so I知 not having -- I知 not understanding. Are we going to have to repost both of those jobs and go back out, judge.
>> that's what the committees recommend. Number one in my thing is two executive managers. That means that of the options that we have looked at, I知 recommended to the court the two executive manager option. There were two or three other options that were laid out.
>> but when we went out for four -- it's been so long since I have looked at this. It was for one job, not two jobs. So my question is whether we have to go back out on a new job search for an e.m. Of criminal justice planning and a separate job search for an e.m. Of emergency services that was one of our dilemmas is finding somebody who had the combined skills this criminal justice planning and emergency services.
>> I have given up on that.
>> I have, too. But the thing is that we were finding very few people that were double dinas. Put it out separately people may have --
>> that's where I知 headed. Two separate jobs, two spate subcommittees of the court and executive manager/coordinators looking for each one. Yeah. So now really when we think back on dinah, one thing that stressed her out was trying to cover all of the different areas. I think that right now under each one there's more than enough work to do, more than enough big issues to collaborate with other governmental entities, the need to manage county department managers, you see what I知 saying. So if the -- at the executive manager level, I知 just elevating the coordinator approach. We have got [indiscernible] one thing they made it clear to me there's a whole lot of work to do and they don't want the jobs. Mull it over, over lunch, if you would. What I will try to do is reduce it to writing and share it with you. Because I thought about this, in my mind I may not be explaining it clearly, but in my mind there are two executive manager approach makes more sense than anything else. If the other thing is in order for us to get this done, if we pull in the interim coordinator and try to use our four other managers, two in each category to assist, we are a lot more likely to get this done. We kind of meet with them anyway, so we will just add this search to the other issues that we discussed when you have subcommittee meetings.
>> so you are saying that Karen and I would have pete come in with the two of us, then we would have alicia and joe.
>> two of the four.
>> two of the four remaining.
>> I mean would come and help us -- now once that person is determined, are you saying that that person would then become an executive manager? So we would be hiring --
>> post that job shortly for the court, the court will interview and hire an executive manager in emergency medical services.
>> and an executive manager for criminal justice planning.
>> right.
>> wow. So those positions those would be equal with our four existing. We are talk being about hiring two more in an executive manager -- wow. [indiscernible]
>> if you look at the coordinators that we had in place, you are augmenting their salaries just by a small amount. So the total cost would -- would be a modest amount. I mean, even if they may $100,000 each, we were paying 90 and 10, weren't we? -- 90 and 08?
>> -- 80.
>> for the for -- 80 and 70.
>> > I think you posted the range, compensation commensurate with background and skills et cetera. What's clear to me is that one person would not be able to cover all of those different parts.
>> I think all of us are pretty clear on that. That's a hard skill set to bring to the table.
>> this actually is from 1995, when barbara and I came on board, we kind of were presented with the end result. When joe gieselman and christian smith and donna dimwitty were hired as executive managers, they were already head of planning and budget, head of t.n.r. And dinah was a coordinator, they gotup graded. So it was a differential to get them from one place to another. The judge's point that is we have already got the coordinator slot, just upgrading it so there's a differential there to get us to where we need to be. We already have this thing split into two jobs. It's just upgrading it to an e.m. Level in terms of management. I want to be respectful to Commissioner Davis to make sure that he is part of all of this, because we have mentioned everybody except him in terms of how do we make sure that he is also a part of all of this because all of our executive managers, all of our interims, four members of the court that you have mentioned I want to be very respectful that all of us are going to have a piece on this, there's not some specie that Commissioner Davis can be pulled into, I知 going to be very realliful with this as a team decision, respectful.
>> he told me that he would love not to have to mess with any of this [laughter]
>> the selection of the person would be made by the full court.
>> I just was hearing everybody's name except Commissioner Davis I felt very uncomfort --
>> comifs my spot [laughter]
>> you all have to give a -- I have to give a speech.
>> Commissioner Davis, just think about it, but if Commissioner Davis weren't on -- on one of the subcommittees it has to be posted.
>> I thought about that [multiple voices]
>> I could still see the results of what happens can't i, judge? I would like to maybe make comment after whichever -- whatever you all have come up.
>> I am very respectful.
>> if my plan is implemented there would be plenty of report backs to the court.
>> everybody's name except Commissioner Davis ...
>> move to recess until 1:30. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, May 17, 2006 10:30 AM