This is interesting. It is Page 73 from the report that Andrea Tevlin, the independent budget analyst, and her staff put out.
The mayor’s budget showed that six members of his staff were categorized as “communications” employees; four were in “boards and commissions;” and seven in “policy.”
But Tevlin says that’s incorrect and she recommends that the City Council change it in the final budget. Her report says that the mayor actually has 12 communications staffers, one liaison to boards and commissions and four policy thinkers.
Angela Means, one of Tevlin’s staffers, said she discovered the error because she knew for a fact that the mayor only had one person working in boards and commissions. It’s this person’s heavy burden to ensure that all of the city’s many boards are filled with qualified members. The city, you might remember, has had a horrible time trying to keep its boards and commissions properly empanelled.
Knowing this, Means looked up the employees in the city’s internal system to learn their actual classification.
Does the mayor really have 12 employees working solely on communications? That would seem excessive and I can’t count that many in my own experience. I’ll have to follow this up.