GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1993

S	1 

SENATE BILL 174

Short Title:  GPAC-Eliminate DOT Positions.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Senator Martin of Guilford.
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Referred to:  Government Performance Audit.
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February 16, 1993

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO IMPLEMENT A RECOMMENDATION OF THE GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE AUDIT COMMITTEE TO ELIMINATE EIGHTY-FIVE POSITIONS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  (a)	The General Assembly finds that the Department of Transportation has 85 positions involving excess layers of management, excessively narrow spans of control, overlapping functions, and unnecessary positions.  There are 51 positions in the Department of Transportation that involve one-to-one reporting relationships, nearly half of which are in the Division of Motor Vehicles.  Specifically, Department of Transportation sections with one-to-one reporting relationships include:
(1)	General Services;
(2)	Internal Audit;
(3)	Governor's Highway Safety Program;
(4)	Hydraulics;
(5)	Right-of-Way;
(6)	Occupational Safety and Emergency Planning;
(7)	Roadside Environmental;
(8)	Bridge Maintenance;
(9)	Roadway Maintenance;
(10)	Equipment; and
(11)	Materials and Tests.
Most of the one-to-one relationships in the Division of Motor Vehicles are in the 10 district Drivers License offices that have a supervisor and an assistant supervisor, which is considered excessive.  Other sections in the Division of Motor Vehicles with one-to-one relationships are:
(1)	International Registration Plan;
(2)	School Bus & Traffic Safety; and
(3)	Vehicle Registration.
(b) An additional 31 positions are considered excessive because of narrow spans of control.  These are management and supervisory positions where the span of control is frequently two or three, which is very narrow given the duties performed.  In many cases, the affected units have small numbers of staff which represent further opportunity to consolidate staff to achieve broader spans of control.
Department of Transportation sections with narrow spans of control include:
(1)	General Services;
(2)	Fiscal;
(3)	Photogrammetry;
(4)	Design Services;
(5)	Location and Surveys;
(6)	Structure Design;
(7)	Pavement Management;
(8)	Traffic Engineering;
(9)	Equipment Inventory Control; and
(10)	Program, Policy and Budget.
(c) There are 11 positions that have overlapping or similar functions, some of which are in the External Audit Branch and the Internal Audit Section.  If they were combined, certain supervisory and secretarial support positions could be eliminated.
The Civil Rights Office monitors the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program.  Certain positions in other units also monitor similar activities; these units include Management Assessment and Compliance, the Construction Branch, and Right-of-Way Branch.  The monitoring of civil rights-related matters in the Department of Transportation should be centralized in the Civil Rights Office, and the overlap of these functions in other offices should be eliminated.
(d) Seven positions in the Secretary's Office and the Fiscal Section, including the Special Assistants for Regional Affairs, are unnecessary and should be eliminated.
Sec. 2.  The Secretary of Transportation shall report to the General Assembly, by August 1, 1993, with a plan identifying the 85 positions to be eliminated pursuant to Section 1 of this act and providing that all identified positions that can be eliminated during the 1993-94 fiscal year shall be eliminated by July 1, 1994.
Sec. 3.  The base budget of the Department of Transportation is reduced by two million nine hundred thousand dollars ($2,900,000) for the 1993-94 fiscal year and by two million nine hundred thousand dollars ($2,900,000) for the 1994-95 fiscal year due to the decrease in personnel positions mandated by Section 2 of this act.
Sec. 4.  This act is effective upon ratification.