Staff shakeup under way in League City

League City is pushing out three more employees at City Hall.
In an e-mail sent to Mayor Toni Randall and City Council on Friday, Interim City Administrator Marcus Jahns said leadership changes were needed and he was in employment discussions with League City's economic development director, its building records supervisor and its human resources director.
As a City Council, you have charged me with building a strong, cohesive leadership team for the city, and I believe that this necessitates changes in leadership in certain positions," Jahns wrote.
Economic development director
Jahns said that on Friday, Tony Allender, the city's director of land management, initiated a meeting with economic development director Doug Frazior about leaving. Details of a severance package have not yet been worked out, but Jahns said that Frazior has indicated that he may be interested in doing other work for the city.
There's a lot of technicalities that have to be worked out with that, because I don't think there's any position to move him in to," Jahns said. I don't know if council wants to do that or not, quite frankly."
Frazior said of the situation: I really don't know. We all serve at the mercy of the mayor and the City Council. I can't know anything really about it until I hear something, and I haven't heard a thing."
But Jahns said it is time for the city to have a new economic development director.
Doug knows his stuff," he said. He knows the nuts and bolts of how economic development works. He knows the statutes and the tools that are available, but he's not the strongest salesperson in the world."
Building records supervisor
The city has reached an agreement for building records supervisor Jerry Grooms to retire in September. In the meantime, he's agreed to help out the city secretary's office with records management at a reduced salary, Allender said.
Grooms was originally hired as an assistant to Mayor Toni Randall, but that position was eliminated for the current budget year. Since then, he worked in human resources for a while and then worked at the Butler Longhorn Museum before moving over to the records department.
We thought that this would be a good way to transition him out without creating a severance package for the city and to get some work done," Jahns said.
Human resources director
Human Resources Director Alison Smith's last day was Friday. Jahns said he hopes to finalize a severance package with her as soon as this week.
Before Smith left, Jahns said he discussed with her the need for a leadership change in the city's human resources department.
"It's a matter of leadership," Jahns said. "She served the city, and I want to treat her fairly. I just think we need to move on down the road."
Smith served as the city's interim human resources director before getting the job on a full-time basis two years ago. Efforts to reach her were unsuccessful today.
Finance director Michael Loftin is serving as interim human resources director.