Amador County – The Amador Water Agency board of directors scheduled a special meeting today to discuss quarterly finances, and could also act on hiring a consultant to look at the agency’s internal operations, toward reorganization.
Human Resources Coordinators Karen Gish in a report dated today (November 9th) recommended a company at a cost of $18,300 to make a management and efficiency study of the agency.
Gish said the company BHI Management Consulting of Tracy includes a staff with the best work experience. She said the company has experience in the operation of water and wastewater agencies, as elected officials, as managers, and working for cities and special districts.
BHI principal “Brent Ives serves as a faculty member of the Special Districts Governance Academy for special Agency Board members,” Gish said.
She said “staff believes that this direct water/wastewater experience coupled with broad based organizational optimization background, make BHI Management Consulting better qualified to analyze the water agency organizational structure.”
The board directed staff to make “preliminary work plans for conducting an organizational assessment of the agency,” she said, and “received three proposals,” ranging from $16,800 to $19,925. “The study itself will take approximately 12-16 weeks.”
The AWA board looked at the September quarterlies on October 28th and heard from Finance Manager Mike Lee that the numbers did not “include the concessions that the employee groups agreed to.” He said those savings would show in the next eight months.
The board asked staff to look at consultants to make a reorganization study. During public comment, agency information technology specialist Mitch Netto said it is “admirable trying to reorganize,” and he thought they should consider trying to “take an outside view.” He recommended a “quick, brief study for a few thousand dollars,” instead of “arguing against your selves” and having “employees against each other.”
Netto said “as a property owner,” he has seen that “rates have not gone up when they should have” for agency customers. In his job with the AWA he said, budget cuts have caused him to cut back on hardware improvements that “you would never, ever not replace” and it was “setting ourselves up for future failure.”
President Bill Condrashoff agreed, saying they should not have friends deciding friends’ jobs at the agency. Director Terence Moore said General Manager Gene Mancebo’s preliminary look into costs found estimates of $20,000 to $30,000, taking 12 weeks. Moore said Mancebo could do the study faster.
Director Gary Thomas said Macebo could do the study “internally” in 10 weeks, but fall behind in other work.
The board will also consider proposals from Bryce Consulting of Sacramento and Koff & Associates of Emeryville.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
