At Tuesday night’s council meeting, Lolli rolled out a proposed plan to streamline services by merging the current Economic Development Department and the Development Services Department into a new department titled the Community and Economic Development Department.
The new department would be located on the third floor and led by a director and assistant director. Pay and benefits for those positions are accounted for in the current budget.
Lisha Morlan was hired at Tuesday’s meeting as the new economic development director with the salary of $114,681,84. She will fill the vacant position created by a resignation in 2022. Morlan was the assistant assistant economic development director.
Under the new plan, Morlan would be named the director of the new combined department, and an assistant director position would be created.
Proposed additional new positions include a code enforcement manager, which would be will be Devra Wells, current development services director; a grant writer, a process server (shared with other departments as needed) that will chase down non-compliant building owners and serve papers, and an additional city planner and economic development program manager.
The annual cost of the new proposed positions is $508,443.78 with additional supplemental appropriation for 2024 of $184,199.08 from the general fund and $70,022.80 from the income tax fund.
Lolli said the new positions and restructuring will create a “one-stop shop” for residents and businesses to receive services and get help and to increase code enforcement to “full-time, detailed oversight on cleaning the city of Middletown up.”
The city currently has five code enforcement specialists, and the proposed additional manager would be a sixth working in the field with others.
Councilman Zack Ferrell wanted to know what changes will happen other than new jobs to actually enforce city codes.
“You will have a code enforcement manager who does nothing but oversees code enforcement and nuisance abatement,” Lolli said. He added with more oversight “you will see code violations being dealt with more immediately.”
Ferrell said he would like to see more of a plan for the code enforcement before hiring positions.
Lolli said the new director and others will be tasked with developing a plan, and “I think you will see a big difference by the end of the year.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Mayor Elizabeth Slamka said she thought it was “fair” to ask for a plan and what is going to be different moving forward and outlining the goals and outcomes.
“What is going to change is we are going to find people who are violating the code and we are going to force them to change,” Lolli said.
Councilman Steven West II said when looking at the plan as a whole, some positions are needed, but he questions code enforcement plan.
“Where I have a problem is ... in the last 10 years there’s still the same caved-in roofs, broken windows, the same streets that constantly have litter on them.”
Residents are “constantly” complaining to council members about “blatant” code violations, West said. He sees alleyways filled with trash. “Where is the enforcement?” he asked.
“Does anybody in this city care?” he said. “Is this the answer? I don’t know because we have invested in raises and been supportive of moving staff around, at some point you have to look at it and go, ‘If somebody needs so much direct supervision, is it an organization problem where we put people, or is it a staff problem?’”
Councilwoman Jennifer Carter said spoke last.
“My turn: I don’t think we should make any move until the code specialists that we have now clean up first,” Carter said. “Let us clean up first and then maybe make a move after we see how they have cleaned up.”
Council is expected to approve appropriations for the new positions and salary changes at the June 18 meeting.
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