Mayor: Management changes are well worth additional costs

Monday, August 21, 2006 The changes are costing more than $150,000 annually in just salary. By DAVID SKOLNICK CITY HALL REPORTER YOUNGSTOWN — The city's management structure has drastically changed during the nearly eight-month-old administration of Mayor Jay Williams. Administrative positions vacant for years are being filled or will be shortly. Overall, the key changes are costing the city more than $150,000 in salary alone each year. But Williams said the changes are well worth the cost. Williams spent about five years as the city's Community Development Agency director before winning the November 2005 mayoral election. During his time as CDA director, Williams said he saw how department heads struggled to get work done because they were responsible for so many duties. Two of his early decisions as mayor were to hire Kyle L. Miasek as deputy finance director, a position vacant for almost four years, and to appoint Jason Whitehead as secretary to the mayor. Williams expanded Whitehead's duties to serve as his chief of staff — city council agreed in March to rename the job secretary/chief of staff to the mayor. Council also agreed to increase Whitehead's salary by 8 percent. As for Miasek, Williams says having the former principal financial specialist for Connecticut's budget office as deputy finance director has already saved the city significant dollars. Eye on Chevy Centre Miasek's primary responsibility is to monitor the finances of the city-owned Chevrolet Centre. Miasek has detected and corrected a number of financial errors made by Global Entertainment Corp., the center's management firm, such as its failure to collect parking fees and facility fees for certain events. The detection of those problems were key to an updated contract with Global that guarantees the company will provide funding to the city if the facility doesn't hit certain profit levels, Williams said. Williams promoted T. Sharon Woodberry as deputy director of the economic development department and plans to hire a commissioner of buildings for the public works department by next month. Those two moves along with the Miasek hiring are designed to ease the work burdens on department heads as well as to groom successors, Williams said. Finance Director David Bozanich, Economic Development Director Jeffrey Chagnot and Carmen S. Conglose Jr., deputy director of the public works department, will probably retire in the next few years, Williams said. Because of that, people with the proper training must be ready to replace them, Williams said. "We're putting people into positions of greater responsibility to create depth," he said. "You can look at it and make it look like an expense. But with these key positions, you can't afford interruption when someone leaves." Also, Williams said he'd re-evaluate the need for those three positions after the current department heads retire. What's planned Williams wants to create a centralized human resources department that would be operational in the next two to three years. One step was the recent appointment of Kelsey Codner, the law department's legislative aide, as the city's human resource supervisor. Codner is receiving $46,321 annually in her new post compared to $37,565 as the legislative aide. If Codner is hired to the new post permanently after a written civil service test is held, the city would seek someone to take the legislative aide job, Williams said. Williams wants the next step toward establishing a human resources department to occur in 2007. The mayor wants Jennifer Labatte, the Civil Service Commission administrator, to serve as human resources director. Civil service would be absorbed by the human resources department, he said. "We'd use human resources as a hiring clearinghouse for everything from temporary seasonal help to mayoral appointments," Williams said. The department would also include an attorney, a finance official and two office workers, all who probably are currently city employees, he said. Most of the managerial changes by Williams have added expenses to the city's budget. But Williams said the city is saving money with his June appointment of William D'Avignon to serve as CDA director, a position vacant for more than a year. D'Avignon, who served as deputy director of planning, is earning $66,611 annually as CDA director compared with his former annual salary of $61,294. D'Avignon retained his responsibilities with the planning department, and Williams has no plans to replace him, resulting in a salary savings of $61,294 annually. skolnick@vindy.com