09-19-18 Personnel and Finance (#10)

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CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Committeemember Williams-Preston stated, I think we all appreciate that, to see the NRC working. I've seen a lot in the last year in terms of the increase in dollars. I've seen it specifically in the neighborhoods that I serve, so I appreciate that and thank you for recognizing that and engaging them. I have a question about the Engagement Specialist.I know that you had the survey going on and people knocking doors. That was initially farmed out to a separate entity. Is this something that position would be taking over? Would we bring that kind of work in house so it can be handled through this person in the future? Mr. Mueller stated, Yes. This would be the person with the day to day responsibilities of this, also with the AmeriCorps folks that we're bringing in next year, this is someone to manage and coordinate those folks too. Committee Chair White stated, I would like to echo some of the sentiments of the Council Members. I appreciate the two (2) of you sitting down and talking and I look forward to your recommendations that you mentioned you will be bringing to the Council in the next week or two (2). Innovation and Technology Santiago Garces,Chief Innovation Officer for the City of South Bend with offices on the 12th floor of the County-City Building, stated, I presented earlier this week, so I'll just go over the positions that we're requesting changes in. The first(1st) is the Deputy Chief Technology Officer, which is a transfer from Public Works. We're increasing the salary at the two percent (2%)rate, but we're changing the title to reflect the increase in the mobile device usages and the data that employees in the field are generating. This is someone the departments themselves are requesting. There is only one(1)request for a new position,the GIS Specialist. We've offset the salary for that position by reducing expenses in our governance line item, which is the money we budget for projects that come throughout the year that are needed throughout the departments, so we should be net neutral in terms of funding that position. Again, this person will be responsible for maintaining the data that we are collecting from the field. We are responsible for maintaining information about the addresses that we feed to PSAP and information about the linear assets that we have in all of the parks. Having a person to help support our GIS team and make sure the information is correct so that the department heads can make better decisions and the employees can perform their work is critical. We had two (2) positions that did not have changes in salary nor in title, one (1) of them is the business analyst and the other is the infrastructure specialist. The Infrastructure Specialist is coming from the Century Center as part of the changes in management that Venues Parks and Arts conducted, then the Business Analyst used to be budgeted from DCI, and the position is now managed by our department. Committee Chair White stated, I sincerely appreciate your presentation,especially that the City is looking beyond just Administration, but going into the various neighborhoods to ensure that citizens who cannot afford technology and Wi-Fi, will now have that available. That was very encouraging. Committee Chair White thanked all of the department heads and staff for the work that you've done to bring us to this point. She stated,I would like to personally thank Jennifer because we tend to meet on a weekly basis, trying to spend time on how to best outline the information so it is as EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574235.92211f574.235.91731TTD 574.235 55671www.southbendin.gov 11