The Medina City Council finance committee voted to transition the city’s Cable TV department into a newly named Communications Department and adopt updated job descriptions, the committee said on Dec. 8.

Staff member Jared told the committee the change is chiefly organizational: “these are just transfer what the current pay scales are for the employees,” and the current pay grades would remain in place while the department’s responsibilities — social media, live streaming and city messaging — are centralized. The committee discussed how existing ordinances that reference the old department would be accommodated and agreed the law director should confirm final ordinance language.

Council members said the new department is intended to provide consistent messaging without taking over departmental communications functions: Jared said it would “work hand in hand with the other departments, not taking away their roles.” The motion to transition to the Communications Department passed with the caveat that the Law Director Huber review the final ordinance language to ensure references in existing ordinances map to the new department.

The committee placed the organizational change into effect for the start of the calendar year and discussed whether any salary adjustments would be retroactive once the communications director’s compensation is set. No salary changes were adopted at this meeting; councilmembers said they would resolve pay decisions at a later date.