Lewiston’s city staff shuffle is scheduled to take effect June 19.
LEWISTON – City operations shouldn’t change much Thursday when a staff reorganization takes effect.
Most city staffers will continue doing the same jobs they’ve been doing all along, but some will have different titles and will be working in new departments, according to City Administrator Jim Bennett.
“But there is a lot happening behind the scenes. ” Bennett said. “We’re still working through all of the logistics, and we will be for a while. It’ll take a good year to put everything into place.”
Councilors endorsed the changes in May as part of the city’s fiscal year 2004 budget, scheduled to begin July 1. The changes are designed to save the city nearly $600,000 per year.
Human Resources Director Denis Jean said the changes are scheduled to take effect for the first paycheck of the new fiscal year. The city starts tracking that pay period June 19.
Five new departments
The reorganization creates five new divisions out of three of the city’s largest departments: Finance, Public Works and Development.
The Development Department splits in half, with James Andrews serving as director of the new Department of Economic and Community Development. That department will focus on bringing new projects to the city and helping to get them developed.
Gil Arsenault will serve as director the Department of Planning Code Enforcement. Arsenault and his staff will handle the city’s comprehensive planning and zoning, land use issues and code enforcement.
Greg Mitchell, development department director under the old scheme, will become assistant city administrator, serving alongside Phil Nadeau.
“Greg’s job will be to make sure projects get done smoothly and completely,” Bennett said
Public Works Director Chris Branch will be put in charge of water and sewer development and the city’s new construction teams as director the Public Services Department. Bennett said those teams, which will bid for city projects alongside private companies, will begin operations next year.
“They’ve already working on projects now,” Bennett said. “It doesn’t make sense to change things in that department until they can start fresh.”
“Chris will be freed up to work on the more highly technical projects,” Bennett said. “His department is going to be more critical for economic development issues that way.”
Dave Jones will serve as director of the Public Works Department, which will concentrate on regular road maintenance, snow plowing and traditional public works jobs.
The plan also pulls the management of information services – or MIS – into a new department. Those employees, who manage the city’s computer systems, are being broken out of the Finance Department.
Other schemes, such as creating pools of administrative clerks for each floor, won’t happen for a few weeks, he said. The city’s parking enforcement will become police responsibility, as well. The finance department currently handles that job.
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