A reorganization of McCall City Hall’s staffing structure was unanimously approved last week by the McCall City Council.
The council moved to create the Community Engagement & Public Affairs Department, a new city department tasked with managing the city’s public relations and internal communications.
In a separate move, the council promoted Erin Greaves, the city’s communications manager since 2015, to be the head of the new department. The promotion includes a salary increase from $85,000 to $110,000.
Communications Coordinator Molly McCullough will join Greaves as the department’s only other employee.
Creating the new department was proposed by City Manager Forest Atkinson, to whom all 11 city department heads report.
“This change more accurately reflects the breadth of work communications has been performing on behalf of the city and will help us better plan, fund, and enhance communications across all departments and our engagement with the community,” Atkinson said in a statement provided to Valley Lookout.
The City of Boise similarly names its department for public outreach under the “community engagement” banner.
Spending transparency
Splitting Greaves’ work into its own department will help increase transparency on the city’s public relations spending, Human Resources Manager Traci Malvich said in a memo to the council.
Greaves has led the city’s public relations over the last decade as a staffer in the City Manager Department.
Greaves’ responsibilities initially included basic city communications and managing the city’s website and social media presence, but over time have grown.
“This new role outlines what I’ve been doing for quite some time such as leading our city teams in communication and engagement efforts across projects and plans, and marketing our services,” she said.
Greaves has also served as an advisor to the city manager on high-priority initiatives, managed the city’s crisis communications, developed city strategy, and led internal communications.
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Other city staff changes approved by the council were cosmetic and did not involve the creation of any new positions or departments.
The city had a total of 146 employees as of the beginning of June. The McCall Golf Course accounts for about a third of those employees.
