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Morgan Hill, California
75
Zucker Systems
Engineering Staff has many years of experience (Asst. Engineer - 15 years;
Assoc. Engineer - 10 years);
The Division has previously used contract staff to address short-term increases
in workload and is currently preparing RFPs to expand use; and
An “Engineer of the Day” is assigned to be the primary technical expert to
address customer and staff inquiries.
C.
O
RGANIZATIONAL
I
SSUES
Leadership and Supervision
Based on the comments provided by customers during the focus group meetings and
written comments provided in customer and employee surveys there is a very high
level of dissatisfaction with the service being provided by this Division. Customers
complain of failure to meet turnaround time commitments, incomplete plan reviews
and the perception that there is a “bottle-neck” in the process at the Senior Civil
Engineer level in the organization. Internal staff complains they are the ones who
must contact customers to alert them that their engineering project won’t be reviewed
on time and that it is difficult to get timely and consistent direction from the
supervisor. We believe there are a number of contributing factors that have led to this
perception of poor service from this Division. However, ultimately it is the
responsibility of the Manager and Supervisor to provide the leadership necessary to
correct the problems.
The most apparent issue we observed is the lack of decision-making authority that has
been given to the Professional Engineers on staff. It is understandable that a
supervisor would exercise closer review of staff work when a new employee joins the
section. However, in the case of the current staffing, these Professional Engineers
have been with the City for 15 and 10 years and should no longer warrant
micromanagement. If staff is continuing to make significant errors in completing their
daily assignments, then a definitive course of action needs to be initiated. Generally,
this begins by establishing clear performance expectations, providing training and
direction as needed and gaining a commitment by all participants that the Division’s
performance must improve in the future.
76.
Recommendation:
The Public Works Director and the Senior Civil
Engineer should develop a comprehensive improvement plan for employee
performance that will allow the Senior Civil Engineer to delegate
appropriate decision making authority to his staff.