Carson City staffing study expected in December

A glimpse into a city government employee efficiency study nearly completed for Carson City showed Wednesday there are reasonable staffing levels, but with some exceptions.

Mark Steranka of Moss Adams LLP, the city’s internal audit consultant, told the city’s Audit Committee the completed study is expected to reach the Board of Supervisors on Dec. 4 and then go to the audit panel next year. He said it’s likely to show, in general, staffing levels are reasonable but provide insight on what to do about exceptions.

Steranka said in a couple of cases there seemed to be more managers and fewer lower level employees, and the city’s span of control in some cases was low. Span of control, in simple terms, relates to how many people a manager oversees. He indicated, however, that’s neither good nor bad and may relate in part to the city’s consolidated status in providing both city and county types of services.

Steranka also talked of recommendations for action by the board. He said a look was taken at staffing levels in 2008 and 2014, before and after the recession, and any changes that resulted.

“What we learned was that a lot of those changes...were down at the staff level,” he said.

Steranka said providing the report to the board first was out of the usual order, but it was the board that originally sought the staffing study.