The city of Florence has decided to conduct a sizable reorganization within the city, concentrating on the finance department, since the finance director of 21 years retired at the end of September.
Linda Chapman was not only the finance director; she wore many hats, was able to do many jobs, and do them well.
The city is faced with what they could do to replace Chapman, and how to rearrange things to be productive. They had already hired a Human Resources Director and just recently a new Finance Director, but that wasn’t enough.
“One department particularly impacted is the Finance Department, which has not seen any expansion in the past decade,” said Florence CAO Joshua Hunt. “As demands on this department continue to rise, we recognize the need to adapt and strengthen its capacity.”
A few weeks ago, Florence City Council received a plan of what the administration wants to do, and after discussion, they were ready to give the plan a first reading.
“The City of Florence has been evaluating a reorganization of the Finance Department over the past six months,” said Florence CAO Joshua Hunt. “These efforts are part of a broader initiative to enhance and expand the services the City provides. With the continued growth of our residential and business communities, it’s essential that we evolve to meet increasing demands.”
Some of the changes proposed are that the Finance Director will now report directly to the City Administrator. Another is that the the existing Accountant position has been reclassified as a Senior Accountant, with more responsibilities under this new job classification.
Another position, a new entry-level position called Staff Accountant, has been created to support the Finance Department and add to the succession planning.
In addition, a part-time Records Clerk position has been added to the Administration Department to help with open records requests.
“Over the past two years, the volume of these requests has increased significantly,” Hunt explained, “with the City processing 493 requests last year and 434 as of September 2024 – a substantial rise from the previous annual average of 175. While City staff consistently meets statutory deadlines and complies with KRS legal requirements, this increase has added to the overall workload.”
When the subject was first introduced, council members had a number of questions and suggestions, but everyone seemed to be on board with the significant reorganization.
“Linda was the epitome of a dedicated employee and coworker,” council member Mel Carroll said. “As a result of this we are going to replace her with a couple of people, because she has been so instrumental in doing things in the city of Florence. When you look around at the city, we have a lot of buildings, we have a lot of equipment, things of that sort. But that’s not really the city. The city is the employees right here, the people we recognize for doing a good job. Right now we have a couple of departments that are understaffed and overstressed, and what we are going to do is put on new positions that will relieve some of that stress. That’s our game plan.”
Florence City Council unanimously voted to approve these changes.
Hunt said they recognized the importance of making sure the city has adequate staffing to meet the everyday demands of running a full-service city.
“This decision reflects the City’s commitment to maintaining high-quality services for its residents and businesses as we continue to grow,” he said.