from City Manager Dominick Casey
It’s been almost a year and half now that I’ve been in this role. It’s been rewarding, challenging, frustrating, and exciting, but mostly humbling and inspiring to know all the great work our staff does throughout this City. The effort and commitment demonstrated by our city team is unmatched in my experience. I think our best days are ahead of us.
We’ve been talking about building capacity in the organization to allow room to do more of the good stuff we want to do. To that end I am always looking for ways our organization can get better. One way to do that is to ensure we have effective alignment in our staffing structure to allow us to focus and deliver on our goals and strategy.
Knowing that Assistant City Manager (and all-around awesome guy) Kevin Payne is retiring, I’ve used it as an opportunity to think about how to best structure the team in the City Manager’s office.
Currently, as the City Manager, I have 12 direct reports which is about double what I believe is realistic given the workload and expectations that come with this role. Along with that, the outcomes of the recent Council strategic planning retreat have solidified the need to make adjustments to be successful with what’s ahead.
Our City Manager’s office needs to have the capacity to provide Council and departments more consistent, day-to-day support and leadership and timelier, robust communication. With that in mind, and pending Council approval of personnel changes, you’ll see our team evolve in the next couple months as follows:
- Assistant City Manager Dion Louthan will oversee Police, Fire, and Parks Recreation & Libraries.
- Assistant City Manager Ryan DeVore, who started this week, will oversee Roseville Electric, Environmental Utilities, Development Services, and Public Works.
- Dennis Kauffman will take on the role of ACM/CFO and oversee Finance, Human Resources, and IT.
- Megan MacPherson will take on the role of Deputy City Manager, and will officially add Council relations, organizational performance and culture, and other responsibilities to her oversight of communications, government and community relations, and public engagement.
- City Clerk Sonia Orozco will report to me, given the timely issues of implementation of district-based elections and the 10-year City Charter Review Commission.
- Economic Development Director Laura Matteoli will continue to report to me directly given her department’s focus on new and changing issues that require City Manager and Council support.
Government is in a different world now—one that involves more process, accountability and transparency, and expectation of immediacy in communicating and responding to a variety of concerns. We’re staffing in ways we’ve done before (with three ACMs and a DCM), but we’re doing it without adding more employees. I appreciate the willingness and support of our staff to expand and reorganize our responsibilities this way.
This new approach allows me to put our people first, spending more time within the organization, getting to know our staff, and learning those insights that you have about how we can be most effective and collaborative for the good of our community and region.
I shared this structure at the Department Head retreat last month, and the response was positive and supportive. Adaptability to a changing environment is one of our core values, and the team recognized that the expanding scope and complexity of our work warrant a structure that can handle them successfully.
Thank you in advance for your support in adapting to a new structure that will help our organization be more sustainable given the changes ahead.