Council discusses job descriptions

Members of the Saratoga Town Council gathered in the Steve Wilcoxson Town Council Chambers on September 18 to discuss job descriptions for town employees and were joined by legal counsel Cathy MacPherson.

While there was discussion surrounding descriptions for a few specific jobs within the Town of Saratoga, such as the recreation director and the planning and zoning officer, most of it centered around taking a top down approach. Additionally, three members of the governing body agreed to talk to other Wyoming municipalities of similar size in regards to job descriptions.

The proposal to look at other towns came from Councilmember Jon Nelson.

“Would it behoove us to do a little tour and just talk to other council members or mayors or go do any visits? It’s something that I’m curious about and I talked to a state legislator about what municipalities—being familiar with other municipalities more so than I am—what are other good models,” said Nelson. “Every municipality is obviously unique and it can’t be cookie cutter. I get it. Just because they’re the same size doesn’t mean they have the same challenges and the same facilities. Many of them won’t have an airport like Saratoga has. Many of them won’t have hot springs”

Nelson then proposed that the governing body consider splitting a list of towns among the governing body and either visit them in person or arrange for phone calls with a member or members of the council.

“I think that’s a good idea. If we do that, I would request that we come up with a list of things that we’re looking for so that can be uniform. That way some of that information can be very comparative,” said Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Keel.

While there wasn’t a specific focus on all jobs within the Town of Saratoga, there was much discussion around the recreation director position and the planning and zoning officer. Councilmember D’Ron Campbell provided her thoughts on both as she had previously served on the Recreation Commission and has been reviewing building permits since the departure of interim zoning officer Kent Smith.

“I think every department should have continuity binders, checklists, for what they do so that you can pass that on. That should be part of the job,” said Campbell.

“This is sort of a management tool, but it’s also part of a personnel function, and that’s a procedure manual and I think that maybe that’s sort of the same thing you’re talking about. A procedure manual is, you have in one place how you do things in a particular office. They’re good for a number of reasons,” said MacPherson. “One, they’re a wonderful training tool. Two, it provides consistency in terms of how you carry out the function, how you deal with the public and how you deal with employees. It’s also, if you have an employee with a performance issue, you can say ‘We have it written right here how you’re supposed to do it, we told you ten times’ and for whatever reason. And it’s an efficiency tool.”

In regards to the recreation director, which had at least two different job descriptions that were 10 years apart, Campbell proposed that the director should have a general certification to be able to audit classes taught by outside instructors. Campbell stated that, when she had previously taught spin cycle classes at the recreation center, her certification had never been reviewed by the recreation department. The issue was also raised that, when it came to youth basketball programs such as Utah Jazz, the onus was put on the volunteer coaches to find officials for the games.

Finally, Campbell stated that she believed that the recreation director should be present for any events that took place at the recreation department. When Councilmember Judy Welton stated that it sounded like Campbell was describing a full-time position, the latter agreed. Nelson stated that he had prepared a draft job description for a full-time recreation director last year which he could provide to the rest of the council for review.

As far as planning and zoning, recommendations from Nelson appeared to mirror the current descriptions in Saratoga’s municipal code for the town engineer. In fact, prior to the departure of Chuck Bartlett, the roles of Director of Public Works and Planning and Zoning Director were combined. 

While no official action was taken on the job descriptions, the governing body did select a total of six municipalities to visit with. Campbell opted for Lusk, population 1,526, and Wheatland, population 3,462. Nelson selected Pinedale, population 1,871, and Wilson, population 1,731. Keel selected Lyman, population 2,070, and Thermopolis, population 2,764.