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

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_..vis-.°CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK the Manager for Inclusion Projects. This position is a full-time position and would support all of the efforts that are carried out of sixty-three (63) action items in the Diversity and Inclusion Plan, maintaining programs and helping support any of the outcomes of the Disparity Study as far as compliance is concerned, and also supporting research and policy development on a more executive leadership level. Committee Chair White stated, I do recall when the Commission duties were expanded to include the County that we were going to revisit that and see what level at which we would be seeking support from the County.Do you see that forthcoming, or do we need to go through the full year's cycle? Ms. Brooks stated, I believe our Director of Human Rights is in conversations with the County Council regarding a position. We don't know what the outcome of that conversation is right now, but it is on the table. Community Investment James Mueller, Executive Director for the Department of Community Investment with offices on the 14th floor of the County-City Building stated, We have a number of changes presented here, all of which we talked about in the budget hearing earlier this month. The first one (1) is on the newly formed Engagement and Economic Empowerment Team, and it is for a new Engagement Specialist Position. When we formed this team, we underappreciated the opportunity available for the Economic Empowerment side, and so in just its first (1St) year, the staff has been able to leverage their salaries and benefits one to one (1:1) without bringing in outside dollars, and with many of the proposals on the table for next year, we're looking at several dollars to every dollar we'd be spending on that team. We haven't been able to do as much as we would have liked on the engagement and outreach side, we've had some early successes with the home repair project, where we went door to door. That is a primary focus of the Engagement Specialist,to go out and do direct engagement on City services, particularly those within Community Investment. We're trying to be fiscally responsible when proposing a new position, so we were looking at a funding cut to the NRC after a one (1) time funding increase this year. We are currently sharpening our pencils on that issue. We had a good meeting with the Executive Director,Diana Hess, in figuring out the responsibilities of the engagement specialist and what the NRC would be better suited to do. We'd like to outline where the NRC would be better off, where the City would be better off, and where the City and the NRC could partner. We are still working on that, but we hope to bring that to you in the next week or two(2)before your vote on the budget. You have the job description currently on the Engagement Specialist for your review. He continued, Moving to the Neighborhood Development Team, there are increases proposed for the Housing Counselor and the Manager of Neighborhood Grants. This is to ensure there is parity across teams. This is the cap, or the maximum salary for structural purposes, it doesn't mean the individual in that position would get the full increase going into next year.The presentations we've seen today would not have been possible three (3) years ago when I arrived and asked for organizational charts. We certainly didn't have this level of clarity across departments. A lot of appreciation should go out to our Human Resources Director, Kyra Clark, and our Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Christina Brooks. With all of that capacity building, there has been more emphasis on fairness and making sure that positions are set at the proper levels, relative to other peers and responsibilities. These two (2) are housekeeping measures. To take a broader look, it's EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.92211f 574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 I www.southbendin.gov 9