Florence city council decided to table a vote on a revamped personnel staffing plan that would both eliminate and add positions in the finance and administration areas.
The proposed changes came as a response to the retirement of city’s longtime Chief Financial Officer Linda Chapman in June after almost 20 years of service. In addition to her finance duties, she also served as the city’s human resources director.
“If anyone knows Linda knows she did multiple jobs, and it’s really not possible to replace her with one single person” said Mayor Julie Aubuchon. “We’ve been saying that for quite some time. We started that initiative by bringing on Laura Grant, who is our HR administrator. She’s done a great job, taking the lead in all things human resources.”
In the proposal, the combination CFO/HR Director would be eliminated, as well as some other positions, and other positions would be created. A few positions would be adjusted to accommodate changes in the finance and administrative departments.
The mayor said the city also has a new finance director, Jason Lewis, in place. The city is reviewing all city positions to ensure they meet ADA requirements and other regulations. Reporting structures for the various positions are also being reviewed.
For example, Aubuchon said the city has a coordinator position on the books but does not currently have anyone in that position. That position has been updated and realigned. The senior accountant position is not new but is a new title. The person in that position has a broad range of responsibilities, from the World of Golf and the Aquatic Center billing to handling water bills and other duties.
“It’s really a very large job,” said Aubuchon. “And between the finance director and the senior accountant, there is a need to bring on additional accounting help, and that is the creation of the new position, the staff accountant.”
As far as administration position changes, the mayor said more help is needed to handle the many open records requests that come to the city. Before 2023, the city averaged about 175 requests per year. This number has steadily grown as the city has grown, and last year, city staff handled 493 such requests. The mayor added that the number of open records requests is expected to surpass 500 by the end of the year.
The proposal includes a position to support that work, Aubuchon said, which will be part-time and under the city clerk.
To minimize the impact of the changes on the city budget, the mayor noted that some positions would be eliminated and some would be left unfilled for now. She also said she anticipates the personnel changes will take time to complete.
Council member Gary Winn said he did not have issues with the specific proposal at this time but noted there was a lot of material in the proposal packet to go over. He suggested tabling a vote on the proposal to give council more time to look things over.
After some discussion, council agreed more time was needed. The mayor said the issue could be put on the agenda for next week and a special meeting on the proposal may be necessary.
