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The Leavenworth County Commission approved an exemption to its hiring freeze during a meeting Tuesday after the reorganization of two of its departments.
Under the changes, both the planning and zoning and the information systems departments have eliminated a position each and have restructured others.
County Administrator Heather Morgan said one planner I position in the planning and zoning department has been eliminated and the employee in that position let go. Another position, for a “planning assistant” was added to the payroll.
That new position, according to Morgan, will perform tasks like processing forms and providing customer service for the office. She said there will be a maximum salary of about $28,000 and job qualifications will be at least a high-school diploma or a college bachelor’s degree.
“They’ll be given on-the-job training,” Morgan said.
Commissioner J.C. Tellefson said the reorganization is partly in response to the decrease in planning activity in the county over the past couple of years. He said the planning department does not need to be at full staff at least until the economy picks up again.
“It’s unfortunate, but we’re hopeful,” Tellefson said, that the measures will help the county in the long run.
The measure will save money. According to a briefing report for the plan, the reorganization will save the county about $15,000 in the 2011 fiscal year.
In the IS department, the position of deputy director, the personal computer technician and telecommunications specialist positions that were all previously filled have all been affected by a reorganization.
The deputy director position has been eliminated completely, and the PC technician and telecommunications specialist have both been reclassified as the information technology technician II and senior IT technician. One additional position, IT technician I, will be added to the department at a lower salary than the deputy director position.
In all, the reorganization of the IS department is proposed to save $7,000 in the current budget and $26,000 for next year.
Those savings from both departments could help reduce what Tellefson said was a roughly $1.7 million budget shortfall this year. It could also help fund some of the extra budget costs that arose during the hearings that recently took place between the commission and the county’s departments.
Though the elimination and reorganization of the planning and IS positions took effect in June, the commission did approve exemptions to the county’s hiring freeze to fill both the PC technician I position in IS and the planning assistant position in the planning and zoning department.
Tellefson said the reorganization efforts came about through the budget process and were discussed in open session. As for whether more eliminations were in store for the 2011 budget, he said he did not know of any.
The Leavenworth County Commission approved an exemption to its hiring freeze during a meeting Tuesday after the reorganization of two of its departments.
Under the changes, both the planning and zoning and the information systems departments have eliminated a position each and have restructured others.
County Administrator Heather Morgan said one planner I position in the planning and zoning department has been eliminated and the employee in that position let go. Another position, for a “planning assistant” was added to the payroll.
That new position, according to Morgan, will perform tasks like processing forms and providing customer service for the office. She said there will be a maximum salary of about $28,000 and job qualifications will be at least a high-school diploma or a college bachelor’s degree.
“They’ll be given on-the-job training,” Morgan said.
Commissioner J.C. Tellefson said the reorganization is partly in response to the decrease in planning activity in the county over the past couple of years. He said the planning department does not need to be at full staff at least until the economy picks up again.
“It’s unfortunate, but we’re hopeful,” Tellefson said, that the measures will help the county in the long run.
The measure will save money. According to a briefing report for the plan, the reorganization will save the county about $15,000 in the 2011 fiscal year.
In the IS department, the position of deputy director, the personal computer technician and telecommunications specialist positions that were all previously filled have all been affected by a reorganization.
The deputy director position has been eliminated completely, and the PC technician and telecommunications specialist have both been reclassified as the information technology technician II and senior IT technician. One additional position, IT technician I, will be added to the department at a lower salary than the deputy director position.
In all, the reorganization of the IS department is proposed to save $7,000 in the current budget and $26,000 for next year.
Those savings from both departments could help reduce what Tellefson said was a roughly $1.7 million budget shortfall this year. It could also help fund some of the extra budget costs that arose during the hearings that recently took place between the commission and the county’s departments.
Though the elimination and reorganization of the planning and IS positions took effect in June, the commission did approve exemptions to the county’s hiring freeze to fill both the PC technician I position in IS and the planning assistant position in the planning and zoning department.
Tellefson said the reorganization efforts came about through the budget process and were discussed in open session. As for whether more eliminations were in store for the 2011 budget, he said he did not know of any.
