The Housing Authority of Covington’s Board of Commissioners discussed the organization’s labor secession plan at their Wednesday meeting, which involves preparing for the departure of about 12 employees over the next three to five years due to retirement.
Although the departure of every single employee isn’t guaranteed, the board broadly agreed that it was good to be prepared. Chris Bradburn, the housing authority’s deputy director, said many positions were in middle management.
“We have 40 employees, and out of the 40 employees, 30% are eligible to retire in the next three to five years,” Bradburn told the board.
“So the management team will be getting together to discuss that and next steps,” Bradburn said. “Everything from training to mentorship programs to looking at the job descriptions, doing analysis, adding essential skills,” and so on.
Bradburn also told LINK nky that the authority’s staff would need to consider methods for recruiting replacements as part of their planning process. Finally, the authority would also need to review and ensure essential policies and procedures were up to date and readily accessible for whoever took over.
Commissioner Tom Haggard, who is also the president of the Covington Independent Public Schools Board of Education, complimented Bradburn and authority staff on planning ahead, saying that it’s sometimes easy for government institutions who’ve relied on the same staff members for a long time to forget about preparing for transition periods.
He asked Bradburn if the planning was taking place primarily in-house or if they had outsourced it.
Bradburn said that the planning is mostly internal, although the staff did contract with a consultant who specializes in these sorts of procedures to give a one-day instructional training to staff to guide the process better.
“Every department will have a desk reference manual about policies and procedures… especially for the core functions,” Bradburn said.
Mayor Joe Meyer, the housing authority’s board chair, also complemented the authority staff on the preparation.
“We talk about this a lot at City Hall. Everybody who’s in government changes, and you will be replaced. The institution will live on. Now you can either do it easy, or you can do it hard, right? If you do it hard, you don’t write anything down. Nobody knows what anything is doing. It’s all personality driven. And a new person comes in and says, ‘What do I do? I have to recreate everything.’ You guys sound like you’re doing it smart,” Meyer said.
Bradburn hoped to have a solid plan for transition in place within the next two to three years.
The next meeting of the Housing Authority of Covington’s Board of Commissioners will take place on Sept. 20 at 4:30 p.m. at the housing authority’s main office on Madison Avenue.