HomeMy WebLinkAboutSpecial Council June 14 19931 WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL
2 Special Meeting
3 Administrative Services Department
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5 June 14, 1993
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7 The meeting was called to order in the Council Chambers, 1000 N. Forest St., 2nd
8 floor, by Marge Laidlaw, Chair.
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10 Also present: Absent:
11 Barbara Brenner
12 Larry Harris
13 Ken Henderson
14 Bob Imhof
15 Dennis Vander Yacht
16 Larry Harris
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18 1. ORDINANCE AMENDING & APPEALING CERTAIN SECTIONS OF
19 CODE DUE TO REORGANIZATION AND FORMING A NEW
20 ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DEPARTMENT (AB93 -173)
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22 Bob Woods, Council Budget Analyst, explained the reasons for adding this new
23 department. The new department combines Information Services, Personnel, Purchasing,
24 eventually the bookkeeping functions of financial processing, and Building Maintenance.
25 Some of these changes will involve Charter Amendments which will be on November's
26 ballots.
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28 Gail Kelley, Personnel Specialist for the County: Asked that the Council consider
29 develop a Risk Management Department for the County. She outlined the reasons for her
30 request.
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32 Brad Bennett, Public Works: Generally thinks it is a good idea. He said he would like
33 to see the next step be clearly defining what's expected from the finance section of the new
34 department. Some of the work needs to be done centrally, some in the individual
35 departments in the County, and that work needs to be sorted and assigned. Bennett agreed
36 to do some preliminary sorting for Council.
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38 Larry Mans, Personnel Department: Likes the centralization of services, and thinks
39 that having a strong financial function within each department is excellent. He responded
40 to questions from Henderson, Brenner, and Harris about the effects of the reorganization
41 on his department.
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43 Woods described ER &R's new functions.
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45 Tom Sutberry, Deputy Administrator, clarified some of the directions that have come
46 to the various departments from the Executive's office, discussed some of the problems with
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fund control in the past, and outlined the efforts being made to correct this in the
reorganizational structure.
Penni Lemperes, Personnel Department: Asked about the logistics of the
reorganization, meaning where will people's offices be physically? Laidlaw explained that
Sutberry and the Executive would be working this through and assigning locations.
Laidlaw and Nat Dickinson, Purchasing, discussed the proposed Charter amendments
and the effects these would have on the timing of the reorganization. Also discussed was the
financial cost of the amendments. Henderson noted that even if the Charter amendments
failed, some changes would be made anyway. Sutberry clarified some of the plans for
change.
Warner and Laidlaw explained what some of. the other department such as the
Health Department were doing to implement the reorganization and clarified that now the
Executive was working with Council to make the implementation as smooth and painless as
possible.
Jim Shobe, Building Maintenance: Speaking both for his department and for himself,
he said that his department would be better off under Administrative Services than under
ER &R or M &O. He is in favor of the move to the new department.
Laidlaw said that comments in writing would be welcome by the Council. Council
would like to have them within the next week or so, so they would be able to digest the
information before the meeting July 6.
The meeting was adjourned.
ATTEST:
WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL
WHATCOM COUNTY, WASHINGTON
J
Nancy QKhn, Assistant Clerk Marge law, Chair
Council Minutes, Ad. Svcs. Reorg., 6114193, Page 2