A plan to reorganize the City Manager’s office is working its way through City Hall, according to a discussion during the city council study session yesterday.
According to Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson, the shift would re-instate the Deputy City Manager, a position eliminated two years ago, and appoint Rey Arellano to the position. Arellano currently serves as assistant city manager and chief information officer. Anderson would also appoint Tansy Hayward to the assistant city manager position, which already exists. Hayward is currently Anderson’s assistant. Arellano would contine as the city’s CIO.
The deputy city manager would oversee city departments in a traditional supervisory capacity, said Anderson. The assistant city manager would work closely with leaders of cross-functioning, community-based services teams.
Anderson told councilmembers that the move is designed to better serve community-based services teams that have been a big focus of Anderson’s tenure since he was hired in July 2005. One example is a team of police officers, human services staff, and homeless advocacy organizations that recently banded together on a homeless encampment initiative that has successfully moved a number of homeless people out of hillsides and into transitional housing.
“We are getting more and more of these, and it’s one of the places where he have had exceptional results,” said Anderson. “We want to take advantage of cross-functional teams and their ability to improvise on a case-by-case or geographic basis.”
If City Council endorses the idea, the reorganization could be implemented in April.