The Turlock City Council approved the reorganization of City departments on Tuesday, including the realignment of City personnel and services, revisions to job descriptions, amendments to salary schedules and position allocations. The motion was approved 4-1 with Councilmember Andrew Nosrati being the lone dissenting vote.
“This organization is intended to reassign various functions and responsibilities of various departments in the county which are split up and not cohesive with each other,” said city manager Reagan Wilson. “Our processes need to be fixed and we have an opportunity to improve those things and improve services to the public.”
The realignment eliminates of the Parks and Recreation Department and Administrative Services. The plan includes the creation of the Department of Public Works, which will be responsible for all street and roads projects and facility maintenance, including parks and airports, according to Wilson. Erik Schultze was recommended for the position of Deputy Director of Public Works.
The city engineer will be responsible for managing the Engineering Division of Public Works and coordinating citywide engineering and public works programs. It was also recommended to have a new Recreation Division under Public Works that will be responsible for all the afterschool programs, camps, classes, sports and aquatic programs.
The realignment includes a new Code Enforcement Division for the police department which includes neighborhood surveillance and code compliance.
“Historically, code enforcement was previously part of the police department,” said Wilson. “By making this move both code enforcement and crime prevention will benefit by working together in the same department.”
Wilson recommended bringing in one neighborhood service supervisor, two neighborhood prevention officers and one neighborhood code compliance officer.
A new Sports Services Division was also recommended in the police department, as well as the addition of a police support manager. Wilson requested the unfreezing of one firefighter position and two fire engineer positions.
Wilson said he plans on appointing Katie Quintero as development service director and recommended eliminating the planning manager position, who currently oversees general planning. The utility services department will become part of the financial and accounting department.
Wilson recommended appointing Jessie Dhami to the position of human resources director. The human resources department will replace administrative services. He recommended bringing in additional staff to assist with the workload.
Sarah Tamey Eddy will be promoted to the position of Deputy City Manager.
“To do all this, I’m asking we do a total quality management plan,” said Wilson. “Total quality management is a way to examine all our city processes in order to utilize all the benefits of these changes.”
Under the new reorganization plan, the Council stated that recruiting and keeping talented employees is going to be key for the city to operate efficiently moving forward.
“It’s all about recruiting and retaining at this point,” said Mayor Amy Bublak. “We’re really moving our city forward at a fast pace and I’m really impressed with what’s been done.”
