Our first CityWorks Academy meeting took place at the Austin at city hall on Tuesday, September 7, 2010 at 6pm. It was a dark and stormy night - yes! Everyone came in looking a little wet since our city was in the throes of the effects of hurricane Hermine. Non-stop rain had fallen all day.

Soon all thirty of us were assembled in a large conference room where we sat around tables. As we entered we each received a large notebook with the syllabus and handouts for our ten weekly meetings.

Our class is an interesting mix of people of all ages from all parts of Austin. There are more women than men in the class and some minorities. Everyone is outgoing and friendly and brings a different outlook to what we're hearing.

The best part of the class was hearing from the city employees who are in charge of their departments. I was impressed by the fact that they were all articulate about their work, well-informed, good presenters, and genuinely interested in questions from the class. They brought life to the bureaucracy that helps to make our city work.

The City of Austin is a home rule city, operating under a city charter. Our city charter establishes a council/manager form of government.
The Mayor and the Council are responsible for:
- Setting policy
-Approving the budget
-Determining the tax rate
The City Manager is responsible for:
-Preparing and implementing budgets
-Implementing council policy by directing day to day operations.

The fiscal year for the city runs from October 1st through September 30th.

The emphasis of the first class was on functions which report directly city manager's office: the head of the Integrity Office and the Law Department. The head of the human resources department also made a presentation. The Office of the City Auditor reports directly to the City Council. The presentation from that office was quite enlightening.

The rest of this blog goes into detail on the information from the individual presentors. Read what interests you and skip the rest.

I was surprised to learn that the city has an Integrity Office. The office is headed by John Steiner, formerly of the city law department. He is an articulate and passionate champion of the activities of his department. The city office has formally existed for just a few years, and has worked steadily to bring the city ethics code and philosophy to all the employees.

To be sure that this happens, the Integrity office trains city work groups, looks for best practices to be sure ethical behavior takes place, and is the agent for a proactive and strong ethical culture in the city. Of course all this is easier said than done. But the way I look at it, the program must be working. When has there been a news item on "bad, unethical" behavior on the part of a city official or employee? Here's a link a video which will tell you more about ethics training:
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/elearning/downloads/ethics-training.htm

We heard from Karen Kennard, Acting City Attorney. The City Attorney's Office has eight divisions with specialized lawyers in each area:
1. Austin Energy - all issues relating to Austin Energy.
2. Land Use and Real Estate - issues relating to commissions, water utility, housing department.
3. Employment and Public Safety - Police, Fire, EMS
4. Municipal Operations - Finance, Contracts, Tax Rate etc.
5. General Litigation - Defends city when it is sued.
6. Affirmative Litigation - will initiate litigation where necessary. For Example: The problems
with the Budget Lodge in NE Austin.
7. Criminal Prosecution - Class C misdemeanors and traffic violations. Day and night court.
That office has a budget over $7.4 million and 83 employees (FY 2010).

Some functions of the City Auditor's Office overlap with that of the Integrity Office. But whereas the Integrity Office has a strong emphasis on training employees in ethical behavior, the City Auditor's Office actually audits city finances as well as operations, often under the direction of city council. For instance, the current effort to improve the parks and recreation department stems in part from a City Auditor's Office report.

For me the most interesting presentation from Mark Washington, the articulate and energetic director of the city's Human Resources Department. That's probably because I understand employee hiring and evaluation from my own work experience. Mr. Washington is definitely a champion of the city of Austin. He wants the city to hire the best and brightest for the jobs that are available. That's a big job. The city has about 11,000 employees, of which around 8300 are non civil service employees and over 2500 are civil service employees (police, fire, EMS).

The only city employees who are unionized are the civil service employees (police, fire, EMS). All other city workers work at will.

Each year the city receives over 100,000 resumes for a job with the city. At any one time around 1,000 positions are open. The average annual turnover of city employees is between 7 - 10%.

We viewed several interesting charts and graphs regarding the make-up of the city's work force.
47% of city employees were born between 1945 - 1964.
45% of city employees were born between 1982 - 2001.
92% of city residents were born between those years.

The lowest paying city job pays $11/hour, higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. City benefits amount to about $10,000 per year per employee.

Before I knew it, the three hours were over. I felt a bit overwhelmed by all the information I had been given - and was certain that there was much more to understand. Still - I know 100% more than I did before I entered the classroom that evening. And I am already looking forward to next week when we will meet at the Austin Public Library.