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BCC Minutes 11/05/1986 S -..-=--=- ..- ~ -~.~-_._._._---- -- ~- - .. Naples, Florida, November 5, 1986 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Board of County Commissioners in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as the Board of Zoning Appeals and as t.he governirlg board(s) of such special districts as have been created according to law and having conducted business herein, met on this date at. 3:10 P.M. in SPECIAL SESSION in Building "F" of the Courthouse Complex, East Naples, Flori¿a, with the following members present: CHAIRMAN: John A. Pistor VI~E-CHAIRMAN: Anne Goodnight Max A. Hasse Frederick J. Voss ABSENT: C. C. Holland ALSO PRESENT: James C. Giles, Clerk; Maureen Kenyon, Deputy Clerk; Donald B. Lusk, Cou~ty Manager; Neil Dorrill, Assistant County Manager; Ken Cuyler, County Attorney; Bruce Anderson, Assistant County Attorney; Tom Olliff, Admiristrative Assistant to the County Manager; and Nancy Israelson, Administrative Assistant to the Board. AGENDð Survey from University of South Florida regarding County Manager PRESENTATION RE SURVEY FROM UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA - NO ACTION Legal notice having been published in the Naples Daily News on November 4, 1986, as evidenced by Affidavit of Publication filed with the Clerk, public h~aring was ~pened to hear a presentation from the University of South Florida regarding a public affairs and policy ~OD( 098 P.\G[ 672 Page 1 - -.-- ---- - -. """""""'. - aODK 098 PV.[ 673' November 5, 1986 management survey. Mr. Donald Menzel, Dire,:tor of the Public Administration Program at the University of South ?lorida and Director of Institute of Government at the Universitj of South Florida and Director for the Center for Public Affairs a~d Policy Management, stated that the Center and Institute is committed to strengthening government and most of his work has centered at the local level and the objective is to do what can be done to help ci:y, county, and state agencies to improve their performances and to m8et the needs of the public as a whole. He stated that they are not engaged in any type of a legal investigation, adding that this was pursue,j from the standpoint of an academic study that has practical applications in terms of the future direction of this County as a public org,3nization serving the citizens of Collier County. He stated that Mr. Picot Floyd is the Senior Associate with the Center for Public Affairs and is also acting administrator for the Florida Center for Urban De3ign and Research at the University of South Florida. He stated t,at Mr. Floyd brings to this study valuable expertise having served as ~ounty Administrator in Hillsborough County, as City Manager in Temple Terrace, Clearwater, and Savannah, Georgia. He noted that Mr. Floyd represents a very valuable resource in helping to conduct this type of study. He introduced Dr. Charles Spindler who has rp.ceived his doctorate in Public Administration from the University of Georgia and also has local government experience in Georgia which serveL the study purposes well, adding that he is - .. .. -- .-... ..",--~ - - --- --- Page 2 November 5, 1986 responsible for analyzing ':he data that was collected through the sur- vey process. Mr. Menzel stated that he would like to compliment the Collier County employees that participated in this survey, adding that to the best of his knowledge they participated with candidness and with sin- cere interest in promoting the interest of the County. He noted that the Board of County Commis:3ioners is to be acknowledged for pursuing this kind of investigation as it demonstrates a sincere commitment to strengthening Collier Coun:y government as a whole. He stated that everyone has been very supportive and cooperative of every request that has been made. He st.~ted that with reç¡ards to the report, there ðre two of them which they will discuss briefly but will need to be studied by each Commission'~r on his own time. He stated that this report is what they regard as the first installment as to what they have learned about the Coul1ty as a wholL and somc of the concerns that have been expressed. He s':ated that this report focuses entirely upon the survey that was conduc':ed in September with 409 employees. He stated that Part II of the report will focu~ on the interviews that were conducted in October \lith more than 40 officials including mem- bers of the Board of Count~ Commissioners. He stated that he would caution the Board to be very c~reful about over simplifying what is said this date or what is presented, adding that governments and orga- nizations as a whole are vE:ry complex entities and to simply conduct a survey of employees and try to examine the responses and piece them ~G~~ 098 p~G[ 674: Page 3 . . . . , ' &00( 098 pÂ',r £)75 November 5, 1986 together into a larger pictu¡"e is a valuable exercise, but it can be a less than constructive exercjse if one tends to over simplify what is being reported. He stated that this report does not provide any suggestions or recommendatiors that might re3~lt in the strengthening or improvement of th~ county government operations, adding that this will be in the next part of the report. He stated that this is a com- bination of description with some analysis of what he sees, but without recommendations at this point. He stated that the question- naire that was administered tJ county employees was one that provided 76 different items that tried to capture a veriety of features of organizational life in Collier County and in doing that, four response categories were used; strongll' agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. He noted that when the write-up was done, he collapsed the categories of agreed and disasreed, adding that he took the agree and strongly agree and combined it into one category and then took the disagree and strongly disagree and combined that into one category for the report. He stated that the other categories are broken out in the technical appendix that is accompanied to the report. He stated that space was provided on the questionnaire for any comments that the employee wanted to write, adding thbt there were approximately 80 com- ments that were received. He ntated that not all the comments have been read at this ~oint, but w:.ll be incorporated into the next part of th~ report. He stated that with as many employees as they sur- veyed, the Board of County Commissioners can be confident that this is Page 4 ..... - - -- --::-- --. "- "-~ - ~ _. .-...~ - - ..-.-....--- -.. ~ ..¡;þ '- - - - .. November 5, 1986 representative of the entire work force, adding that the County work force is defined as those under the County r1anager's jurisdiction, since emplJyees of the Constitutional Offic'~rs were not surveyed. He stated that the survey shows ê divisional b~eakdown to indicate whether concerns are isolated or whether they are widely spread out. He indicated that there is aleo a category of top managers which means that 30 employees that were dEpartment heads, division heads and mem- bers of the County Manager's cffice also completed the questionnaire. He stated that the majority group that responded were the people that tend to be involved in a county service, not supervisory or admi- nistrators positions. He stated that out 0: the 109 employees, 231 or 60.9% have no supervisory resçonsibilities and were considered the people involved in the actual work. He stated that confidentiality was assured and he will abide by that. He stated that he feels that this report is a very comprehensive look at Collier County and the government and should be used in a positive way. Dr. Spindler stated that the questions that were asked were pri- marily attitude questions which means that they represent perceptions by employees, adding that somE, of them represent facts. He stated that Collier County is experiencing intense pressures from population growth and residential and cOT;lmercial development. He reported that as a result of theÐe pressure~¡ much is internalized within the organi- zation and there is a need for the government to be more adaptive to a changing environment and this ·survey illustrates the weaknesses and Page 5 ~oo~ ()9g W:~ 676 --_. -----.--~.--~.___~__..__ ~ __-.. ___. .,.._. _.___M..__..__._.____ ~DDK 098 FI,S£ 677 November 5, 1986 strengths of the Collier County government which have a long-range impact on the way the organi::ðtlon adapts to this environment. He indicated that one area of concern is the heavy reliance on rules and formal procedures, a,ldinQ thélt more than ~/3rds of all people sur- veyed, agreed that there are a lot of rules, policies, procedures and standard practices one has to know. He indicated that more than 3/4ths of responnes indicate,1 that going through channels is constantly stressed by top m~nagement. He stated that the problem becomes more apparent when o\'er half of the responses indicated that the County Manager and Division heads emphasize formal hierarchy over getting the right people together to do the job. He stated that despite the reliance on formal rules and procedures, there are still perceptions of disorganizaticn by some employees. He indicated that the majority of all respondents, except top managers, feel that there is excessive red tape and rules which make it difficult for new ideas to receive consideration. He indicated that the survey shows that there is a lack of communication between the employee and the superior and almost half agreed that t1ey are not informed when changes are made in work assignments. He reported that in addition to com- munication problems between s'lperiors and subordinates, top managers experience communication problems within the organization as well, adding that they would like to receive more information from everyone. He stated that one of the str'~ngths was that there was overall a lack of serious conflict between el~ployees, adding that almost employees Page 6 - - .. --r-. .-. ......... .....~-.............._-~~ -.----, ...-~ ~,..."..,.~ ~.L, .~_ .. - .. November 5, 1986 replied that it was easy to get to know other employees in the depart- ment, but most employees felt that their departments did not have a relaxed easy going atmosphere, and 54% of all employees felt that relationships between managemE!nt and employees was lacking in warmth. He stated that another strength of the employees is that they feel proud and a loyalty to their department. He referred to the actual report and indicated how· to [(,ad the cross-table, adding that every question in the questionnaire and the responses by divisions are shown on each of the pages of the rE,port and in order to find out the results, one must know how to read the cross-table. Commissioner Hasse questioned if there is a breakdown of top mana- gers and employees to determine how many there are of each, to which Mr. Floyd stated that there Ü: no breakdown in the report like that, anà it is beyond the scope of the study. Mr. Floyd stated that he feels the growth issue has a lot to do with the organizational ,problems of, this County. Commissioner Pistor questjoned when the second part of the report - would be ready, to which Mr. ~lenzel stated that it should be ready by the 16th of November, but he ~Iill get in touch with the Commission. ~ODK 098 P~G[ 678 Page 7 - -- --- - ---.... ,____W' aDOK 098 w.t 679 November 5, 1986 ... There being no further business for the Good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by Order of the Chair - Time: 4:30 P.M. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS/ BOÁRD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL ~ í) / /) J------ //1 ,'~ b1. J.r;[çW ( JOHN A. PlSTOR, CHA,","'N ,.,.,..""'~':':""" A'r'.tÊST~~'¡'(b '. ,..-'~·'ë·"·GJ;r£S, CLERK .:'¿~ :"-::'. r. ~ __ ",:%; _ .....' ::~,:~~ ~~WC, :', ,,:.·T~è~e~~:~tes approved by the Board on 8~ pre~~~t~~~ ~ or as corrected '-," 7?: '1J . ¡PI (!~ - -- .. Page 8