New city organizational chart inserts Executive Chief of Staff above department heads
BY JENNIFER CABRERA / JULY 22, 2019
An update on this article with corrections appears here.
A new organizational chart for the City of Gainesville is buried in the proposed budget for FY20. Included in the $1.2 million in “City Manager increments” is an Executive Chief of Staff position that was eliminated in FY19 but is currently on the list to add back in FY20. This seems innocuous (except for the $150k cost) until you look at the changes in the organization chart. The current organization chart shows two Assistant City Managers with various departments reporting to them and all other departments, including the Department of Doing, Budget and Finance, the Police Department, and Human Resources, reporting directly to the City Manager.
The proposed new organization chart, which has received little, if any, discussion in City Commission meetings, has only the Assistant City Managers and the Executive Chief of Staff reporting to the City Manager. Strategic Initiatives, the Department of Doing, Budget and Finance, the new Community Redevelopment Agency, the Policy Department, and Human Resources, and a new Communications Office all report to the Executive Chief of Staff. Information Technology has been removed from Budget and Finance and placed directly under one of the Assistant City Managers.
In other differences that may or may not be significant, Regional Transit Services is now under the Department of Mobility; it doesn’t appear as a separate entity on the previous chart. Also, an entirely new department, Communications, appears on the new chart.
Do prospective City Manager candidates know about this major change in the city’s organization chart?