Linn County auditor seeks input on boss-employee ratio

CEDAR RAPIDS - Linn County Auditor Joel Miller is conducting a poll on the county's staffing practices.

“I'm looking for some public input on what people think the span of control should be, the management-to-employee ratio for organizations in Linn County,” Miller said this afternoon.

The survey at the Poll Daddy web site asks respondents' views on the idea supervisor-supervised ratio, along with a bit of background information on their own workplaces.

Miller said the poll was inspired in part by his effort to reclassify an employee in his office. He said property tax manager position “is a pretty important job,” but doesn't supervise any other workers. The property tax manager calculates valuation rates for every one of the county's more than 260 taxing districts.

Miller said the county's human resources staff won't allow him to reclassify the position.

“They have created some artificial barriers to someone like me who's trying to flatten their organization,” he said.

Miller said that in some county offices “there's a director and an assistant director, and everyone reporting to the assistant director. I'm just trying to gauge what the public thinks. I'm trying to get a balance of people who work for government and the for-profit sector, and I seem to be getting that.”

Miller said about 100 people had taken his poll through this afternoon. He's hoping for at least 200 responses.