Pierce County Council to add more than $200K to its payroll. Here’s what that will fund
The Pierce County Council has voted to add a policy analyst to its staff and change some leadership roles to ensure the council operates more effectively, according to a staff report.
In addition to the new position, the council will create a budget team, a clerk management role, a legal team under the management of the chief counsel, a policy assistant and a permanent assistant clerk position.
The resolution was passed unanimously by the County Council on Tuesday.
Additional salary and benefits are projected to cost between $216,000 and $251,000 annually, per the staff report.
“The number accounts for the additional position added to support the policy teams, along with the elimination of the Principle Policy Analyst position, which is being replaced by the Policy Director Position, and the added responsibilities to the Clerk of the Council taking on a supervisory position,” said communications manager Bryan Dominique in an email Thursday.
The current budget for employee salaries in the Office of the Council over the next two years is $8.2 million, but due to vacancies, “this cost will more likely come in lower than that,” Dominique said.
The restructuring is unrelated to the Pierce County Council’s plans to move into a new office building in downtown Tacoma by 2025, Dominique said. In May the council approved purchasing the building for $27 million.
“There wasn’t a lot of controversy around it. We’ve been operating under a similar structure to this for some time,” Dominique said. “This just codifies that. It’s really just a matter of making sure that our current procedures match what our organizational structure entails on paper.”
Under the previous organizational structure, the chief of staff oversaw 14 direct reports. The reorganization will reduce that to six, breaking other positions into teams to allow for better functioning and efficiency, Dominique said.
