- February 25, 2025
The city of Ormond Beach has made changes to streamline its human resources processes after working with outside agency James Moore and Company. A new performance evaluation process was developed and implemented late last year.
James Moore uses a “lean process” strategy to analyze procedures and eliminate waste.
The review of the Human Resources department found that employee reviews were past due by an average of 84 days and some reviews were as long as 10 pages and required tedious typing into an Excel spreadsheet.
To speed up the process, the city is going to use available software to eliminate manual entry and reduce the turnaround time; and put more accountability on managers, rather than the Human Resources department.
Finance Director Kelly McGuire said they also looked at improving the consistency in policy among departments.
Another idea that came out of the “lean process” review was to submit project change orders to the City Commission for approval only if the amount is over $25,000. The officials rejected the idea after hearing the proposal at a Jan. 6 workshop.
A change order happens when a company hired by the city to do a project runs into something unforeseen.
A team consisting of the city engineer, finance director and James Moore and Co., determined that the change would make the process more efficient. McGuire said that out of 81 contracts since 2007, 22 had no change orders, 23 had change orders that increased costs and 36 had changes that decreased cost.
City Commission Rick Boehm said he was concerned about the aggregate cost. He didn’t want several changes to amount to as much as 50% of the contract.
Commissioner Troy Kent was opposed to any change.
“If there is a change order, I want to see it,” he said. “If I have a question, I want to call.”
After the workshop, the City Commission had their first meeting of the year and gave final approval to a revision in the Land Development Code to allow the sale and consumption of beer and wine at personal services businesses in some business and commercial zones. The change was requested by Tipsy Nails and Spa, a salon located in the Trails Shopping Plaza.
The applicant also requested approval for selling alcoholic beverages, but this was denied by the commission.
Also at the meeting, the commission approved a resolution urging the Florida legislature to enact laws providing 10% of any proceeds designated for the Florida Land Acquisition Trust Fund to be used to improve water quality by reducing or eliminating septic systems. The trust fund, approved by voters last year, dedicates 33% percent of net revenues from document tax to improve environmental areas.
