City of Gainesville - File #: 080923.

• File #: 080923.
• Version: 0
• Name: Evaluation of the Opportunity to Merge Alachua County and City of Gainesville Equal Opportunity Functions (B)
• Type: Discussion Item
• Status: To Be Introduced
• File created: 4/2/2009
• In control: City Manager
• Final action: 4/2/2009
• Title: Evaluation of the Opportunity to Merge Alachua County and City of Gainesville Equal Opportunity Functions (B)

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result
4/2/2009	0	City Commission	Approved as shown above (See Motion)	Pass

Title
Evaluation of the Opportunity to Merge Alachua County and City of Gainesville Equal Opportunity Functions (B)

Explanation
At the request of the City Commission, the City Manager established a team to evaluate the feasibility of combining the City of Gainesville Office of Equal Opportunity and the Alachua County Equal Opportunity Division. This request was made in light of the fact that the County's Equal Opportunity Director position is currently vacant, and the City's Equal Opportunity Director recently announced his intention to retire in September, 2009.

City and County staff recognized this as an opportunity to showcase City/County cooperation. The result could enhance service to citizens and possibly reduce costs to both organizations - which is especially attractive in these difficult fiscal times.

The evaluation team was composed of:
City Staff: Russ Blackburn, City Manager; Jimmie Williams, EO Director; Sandy Barnard, HR Director; and Charlie Hauck, Senior Assistant City Attorney.
County Staff: Randall Reid, County Manager; Jacqueline Chung, EO Supervisor; Kim Baldry, HR Manager; and Dave Wagner, County Attorney.

To perform the review, staff gathered extensive information about the size, jurisdiction, reporting relationships, staff and budget size for County and City Equal Opportunity Offices throughout the State of Florida. Ratios of EO staff to employees and to citizens were calculated to evaluate the appropriateness of current staffing levels. A comparison of the current City and County EO Offices and their roles and responsibilities was also done and investigation and technical assistance workload was evaluated. Currently the City EO Office has 6 FTE's including the Director and the County has 4.75 positions, including the Director. A summary of this analysis is attached.

The team identified six possible options for merging the offices:
1. Merge the offices under the County
2. Merge the offices under the City
3. Ma...