The New Orleans City Services Coalition says the new city government that takes office in January will need to reform how the city handles its licensing and permitting process. According to coalition members, the first reform in that department--and in other city departments--is looking at who is doing the job.
They say it starts with making changes to the civil service system.
"What we came up with is a recommended hybrid model," Coalition general counsel Sharonda Williams said. "Civil service would be maintained in terms of disciplinary actions and terminations and that kind of thing, but there would be a shift of department-level focus on hiring, discipline, firing, (and) writing employees up such that there's more control at the department level and with department heads in managing their workforce."
Williams says that would allow the heads of all city departments to manage their workforce more efficiently.
"For efficiency purposes, as a former city employee myself, I enjoyed having unclassified employees because it wasn't the same level of approval processes, etc., through the (civil service) commission," Williams said. "It was more direct hiring in the way that your would traditionally think of."
"We've got to think about: if we were to create this system from scratch today, would it look like it does right now?” coalition policy advisory Peter Reichart added.
According to Reichart, each city department has different needs when it comes to hiring employees. That’s why he believes the civil service process should be modified to give department heads the latitude they need to hire the right person for a particular job.
“Looking at each of those different entities, what is ideal for each of those different entities," Reichart said. "That’s kind of a way to get about the business of really thinking about how this should be rather than just saying, “Well, it’s always been there.”