By Rick Palsgrove
Southeast Editor
Groveport City Council is considering adding some jobs to the city payroll and adjusting others.
On Feb. 22, council could consider legislation on these proposed city jobs:
•two additional police patrol officers;
•an engineering administrative assistant;
•the addition of two full-time clerk positions in the recreation department;
•the deletion of the operations manager position in the recreation department and the addition of a customer service coordinator in the recreation department.
Police positions
Groveport City Administrator Marsha Hall said the pay for new police officers is set by the FOP contract. Through June 30, 2016, Step 1 is $24.16/hour, Step 2 is $26.63/hour, Step 3 is $29.10/hour, Step 4 is $31.57/hour, and Step 5 is $34.03/hour. According to the contract, all new hires begin at Step 1.
“We have 11 full-time patrol officers and one full time school resource officer,” said Hall.
(This number does not count the chief, captains, lieutenants, and sergeants. Including all officers, the department has 22 full time police officers and four reserve officers.)
“The determination of how many officers to have is made by city council in conjunction with the mayor and police chief,” said Hall. “It is not based solely on residential population, but also by our business needs and the number and type of police programs implemented by the department.”
Engineering administrative assistant
Hall said the administrative assistant to engineering is a new position.
“We have not finalized the job description and pay range for this position until we determine if this position will be similar to other city administrative assistants or more in line with the pay grade for the executive assistant job description,” said Hall. “If the description and pay is not that of the administrative assistant, additional legislation will come back to council for approval.”
Recreation center staffing
The pay grade for the additional full time recreation center clerks is the same as other city clerks – $11.77/hour minimum to $18.92/hour maximum. If approved, the full-time clerks could reduce the amount of part-time staff.
“We’re still determining the number of hours of part-time assistance that will be needed,” said Hall. “This change to full-time was not specifically done for a savings. It was done to improve customer service at the front desk. It is difficult for part-time employees to keep up to speed on the rules and to be efficient signing customers in and for registration of classes and so on.”
Hall said the recreation department has the city’s largest staff.
“We have 8 full-time employees at this time and currently have 91 part-time staff assigned to the recreation center,” said Hall. “Throughout the year, the total numbers of full-time, part-time and seasonal staff change dramatically based on the services being offered.”
Operations manager and
customer service coordinator
Hall said the operations manager position could be changed to a customer service coordinator position possibly at a lower pay grade because several of the operations manager’s responsibilities were moved to the facilities staff at the recreation center.
“The current duties put more emphasis on the front desk and customer service,” said Hall. “The prior pay grade reflected duties similar to other manager positions at the rec center. The qualifications and licensure and certification requirements have been reduced.”
However, Hall said she requested that council postpone a decision on the operations manager/customer service coordinator until she does some additional research on the positions.
Name change
Council will also decide on whether or not to change the name of the “parks and recreation department” to the “recreation department.” Hall said this change is because park maintenance is now under the facilities department.
