In October, the Granby Board of Selectmen adopted the following budget goals and objectives for the fiscal year 2025 budget and beyond:
• Deliver and maintain excellent town services that benefit all residents while budgeting in a conservatively and fiscally responsible manner;
• Explore alternative methods of providing services and ways to expand revenue sources to minimize property tax increases;
• Explore methods for creating efficiency and reducing costs;
• Provide appropriate funding to maintain all town assets and to meet the long-term capital needs of the town. Examine the current process for developing the capital improvement program;
• Explore alternatives to note payable direct borrowing, including cash purchases from the capital equipment/ improvement fund, where appropriate and advisable;
• Develop a multi-year plan to maintain unassigned fund balance reserves at a minimum of fifteen percent; and
• Continually strive to improve and fund communication strategies with residents and businesses in all areas of government.
With these goals in mind, the following organizational changes will go into effect shortly after July 1, to further strengthen an already solid organization. Here’s what will change.
Parks and Recreation
The parks and recreation organization will be permanently added to the senior/social/youth services organization. The temporary realignment has worked well over the last 90 days and should continue creating a resident life support continuum for the delivery of unique programming and services benefiting each age group.
Public Works
The director of public works will assume the role of capital projects management officer (CPMO). Critical, time sensitive work on American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) capital projects needs one owner to drive the town’s ability to properly obligate $1.6M of capital projects by Dec. 31. After ARPA, the CPMO will transition to the administration of a new, formal 10-year capital plan allowing us to focus on a new way of addressing deferred maintenance on infrastructure.
The public works deputy position has been eliminated in favor of sub-organizations of fleet, facilities, grounds, roads and general—each headed up by a team leader/foreman.
The new organization will see supervisor responsibilities added to five existing job descriptions to bring the supervisory span of control to a more manageable level and to create internal promotional opportunities.
Finance Department
The positions of tax collector and assessor will be aligned with finance, a more traditional organizational structure, for closer supervision, training and cross-training.
Human Resources
The current part-time human resources director will move to full-time sometime after July 1. The town HR function will be informally linked with the Board of Education HR department to provide collaboration opportunities, for cross-training and to develop townwide policies using automation.
Town Manager’s Office
The town’s management analyst will be renamed as the administrative project management office (APMO). This position will work closely to advance short- and long-term administrative projects like the implementation of ClearGov for the town budget by year-end 2024. (ClearGov provides cloud-based budget cycle management software to local governments.)
The town’s management specialist handles a variety of administrative functions. This position will continue to administratively support the town manager but will have the following new critical duties added to the job description: coordinating risk management activities like securing certificates of insurance from vendors and placing the annual insurance package with CIRMA. Issuing requests for proposals (RFPs) to more systematically and efficiently procure goods and services for the town needs.
The town’s part-time community engagement position, which includes oversight of social media and the website, will become the grants office. This new area will be created with the grant administration and coordination function moving from a decentralized task shared by all directors to a centralized position, enhancing identification, creation, submission, and tracking of all things related to grants.
As the employees and community digest these changes, know that change can be destabilizing, but we will do it by supporting employees where necessary as the changes go into effect. Please understand that these changes were done by adding responsibilities to existing job descriptions, not by adding more employees. In fact, full-time headcount was reduced by two employees.
Also know that the success of any organization is wholly dependent on the people who are part of that organization. In its current form, Granby stands out among municipal organizations because of the people who are part of it.
With these changes, there is an opportunity for the organization to be stronger, more efficient, more resilient, and more effective. If we’re successful, that’s good for the employees and it’s even better for the Town of Granby.