Geneva considers hiring staffing consultant

Geneva may hire a consultant to study employee pay and its staffing structure, as it prepares to build its 2017-18 budget.

It may help the city council decide whether to grant city administrator Stephanie Dawkins' wish: to hire an administrative services director to take on some of the duties she used to do when she was assistant city administrator/administrative services director.

"I've kept my head above water for eight months," she said, but "I'm getting bogged down."

Dawkins became administrator in June, when the previous one retired. The council decided not to fill her old position, preferring to see whether it was necessary.

Dawkins said she is spending time on operational matters, overseeing the administrative, human resources, finances and information technologies departments and is missing out on time to develop overall strategy and to mentor the directors of those departments.

But Alderman Jim Radecki suggested that rather than hiring another director-level position, perhaps some of those operational duties could be given to other workers. That led to the suggestion to study the overall staff structure.

Aldermen also agreed with Dawkins that because it's been 12 years since the city had an outsider look at its pay structure, it is probably time.

The matters were discussed during a budget workshop meeting.

Other preliminary requests aldermen discussed included increasing the hours of the preservation planner from 29 to 40 a week and hiring another utility locator/water maintenance worker.

They also preliminarily agreed with a suggestion to decrease the amount of money held in reserve in the electricity fund, from 90 days' worth of expenses, or about $9 million, to 60 days' worth. That would enable the city to keep customers' rates the same until 2022, unless there are unexpected expenses, said Hal Wright, electrical superintendent.