Hot Springs’ management shuffled

HOT SPRINGS — City Manager David Watkins announced Thursday that Bill Burrough has been made deputy city manager and that City Clerk Lance Spicer will assume the duties of assistant city manager.

With the reorganization, Watkins said, he tried to incorporate some of his strongly held philosophies.

“The first one is you’ve got to be able to answer the question, ‘Who’s in charge?’ In any function we do, you have to be able to answer that question. Even if it’s something as simple as billing utility customers, collecting the money, reading the automated meters — Who does that? Who is responsible?

“In our system, when I came here, it was very murky in terms of, ‘Who is accountable?’, ‘Who do I go to when something breaks?’,” Watkins said.

Watkins said he also tried to come up with a clear chain of command.

“If you do that and set it up right, I can hold someone accountable, reward someone if they do well in handling a function and not have to figure out who was really responsible. So I’ve made Bill Burrough my deputy city manager, which means he is my No. 2 guy,” he said.

Watkins said one of the problems the former organizational structure presented was having too many departments report directly to him.

“I think when Lance Hudnell moved over to the city manager’s office and Lance Spicer became city clerk, a lot of the functions and reports that Lance Hudnell had, moved with him over here,” Watkins said. “If you looked at the organizational chart, the number of divisions or departments accountable to him was about a dozen and a half, and that’s way too many.

“Most management consultants will recommend that your span of control be probably between five and seven (departments). When it gets larger than seven, you as a supervisor are unable to provide the attention and supervision it takes to run an efficient organization. And I had way too many,” he said.

Watkins said he was naming Spicer as the assistant city manager, or No. 3 man, in the chain of command, and feels that Spicer has “been underemployed here and I think he has the potential to do more.”

“With that move, I can hold him accountable for functions that he now oversees,” he said.

With the new appointments, Burrough will be responsible for the Public Works, Water and Wastewater, Engineering, Parks and Recreation and Sanitation departments.

Under Spicer will be a newly created department that will address billing and customer service, which has previously been split between several departments , Watkins said.

In addition, Spicer will also be responsible for the Intracity Transit, Planning and Development, Airport, Fleet, Information Systems and Public Information departments, Watkins said.“So I’ve got two people who report to me who are heading up functions that I have to get working efficiently and now I’ll know who’s in charge,” Watkins said.

Under the new organizational chart, Watkins said he wants “something almost like a contract” with the department heads, or those people who report directly to him.

“Not a literal contract, but more of a ‘This is what you’re going to get done this year. If you don’t get it done — and if we’re ever able to offer raises again — you won’t get a raise; if you meet it, you will.’

“It’s kind of a motivation, but it’s also an evaluation. If you can’t meet these goals, I need to find someone who can,” he said.

Watkins also said the Finance Department “is a big player” in the city.

“I’ve got to concentrate Dorethea ( Yates, finance director) on long- term financial trends, monitoring and analysis. I don’t need her involved in customerservice billing. I need her to help me do some long-range capital improvement planning. That’s my priority for her,” he said.

The fire and police chiefs, human-resources personnel and finance directors will continue to report directly to Watkins, he said. The animal-services division will report to the police chief.

“So that’s what I’m doing. It’s really no more complicated than that. It’s implementing the concept of ‘I know who’s in charge. I know who I can hold accountable. I know who I can praise.’ There won’t be any confusion about why something didn’t work, or conversely why something did work. I’ll be able to answer that question,” Watkins said.