Will cutting middle managers save taxpayer money?

Streamlining her office of middle managers can save $8-10 million a year, Florida CFO Alex Sink said last week. She encouraged other agencies to adopt her reforms.

Not in Highlands County, local government managers are contending.

"We're kinda flat," County Administrator Mike Wright said. "Our work charts show that."

Six people are on Wright's executive team. One is Road & Bridge supervisor Kyle Green.

"And there are six people who report to Kyle," Wright said. Under those six are crew leaders and foremen, but Wright doesn't define crew leaders and foremen as middle management.

What's a middle manager?

Webster says middle managers are between operational supervisors and policymakers. Middle managers have at least one management level below and one management level above, so they get reports from managers, then they report to other managers.

Using that definition, in law enforcement, patrolmen report to corporals, corporals report to sergeants, sergeants report to lieutenants, lieutenants report to captains, captains report to majors, and the majors report to the sheriff or the police chief.

Therefore, corporals are lower management and majors are upper management. Sergeants, lieutenants and captains are middle managers.

Sheriff's office

Sheriff Susan Benton disagrees: "I really think you need to look at law enforcement a little differently."

The sheriff's office operates three shifts a day, 365 days a year.Two departments - patrol and detention - have a lieutenant on each shift, with 15 to 16 deputies. One sergeant supervises patrol deputies at the north end of the county, the other is at the south end.

At the jail, one sergeant controls bookings, the other is responsible for security posts.

Instead of flattening middle management, Benton has done without one executive - the undersheriff.

"I have continued to try to do without this position to save money," she said. "What I have done instead is to appoint one of the majors as undersheriff every other month in the event that I am out of the office; they have my authority for signature and command."

Some systems get bloated with middle management because they evolve over time. Middle managers are inserted or promoted to handle a specific problem, and don't leave after the problem is solved.

Benton said her organization was designed, and it's reviewed at least annually during the strategic planning session and the budget process.

"We have made some changes since the first design, all of which were to provide more accountability and efficiency," the sheriff said. "I do not feel our agency is middle management heavy, specifically in comparison to other law enforcement agencies our size.

"We constantly assess the organizational process," Benton said. "We have reduced the budget over the past three years and organizational efficiencies are the primary reason."

Avon Park

Interim City Manager Maria Sutherland questions the wisdom of eliminating middle managers.

"If those individuals perform specific tasks that no one else in an organization performs," she said.

"The unions have a very large say on how middle managers jobs' are retained," she said. "Middle management are mostly non-union positions.If you eliminate a middle-manager, then either the top dog gets the additional work, or a new union position opens up."

Over the years, the job descriptions of middle managers have been restructured, she said."You can't do this so easily with a union position."

For instance, during the construction boom, cities needed full-time planning and zoning managers.

"This is not the case currently," she said. "Had the P&Z position been held by a union employee, then we would have had to restructure that person's job, or that person could take another union job within the organization with a lower pay grade and oust someone else."

"Overall, the city of AP has a very streamlined work force," Sutherland said. "One project manager, with no one below that position."

A project manager may be a middle manager, Sutherland conceded, "but then, there is nobody else to perform the functions of the project manager job."

Sebring

Like other top managers, Scott Noethlich is unsure exactly how to solve the management riddle.

Marty Roepstorff is the city of Sebring utilities director, for instance. A solid waste manager and a water department manager report to Roepstorff. Then there are crew chiefs, who run the crews in the field.

"Does that make us middle management heavy?" Noethlich asked.

Not necessarily. Sink hopes to achieve a 7:1 employee to manager ratio.

"We are satisfied with the system we have," Noethlich said. "We run a pretty thrifty ship here at the city."

Sebring and Lake Placid didn't lay off workers or managers last year, even though the budget was slashed.

This year, more budget cuts seem certain, but Noetlich isn't sure about layoffs. "I can't rule it out. There may come a day when we may have to shed a few people, whether it's on the front line or middle management. I don't know yet."