A question for HR professionals

Did any of you catch the comment (by the town's Finance Director) about "our HR person is only one person" during last week's Council meeting?That reminded me of something I had been meaning to do... ask if any of you are HR professionals? And if so, is it normal for an organization to have only two HR positions (a "payroll & benefits position" and a "Personnel Director position") and have them not be in the same reporting chain?

For a clearer explanation, I've included the two separate budgets here... first the budget for the Town Manager's office, including the position of the Personnel Director:Then the budget for the Finance Department (Accounting & Treasury), including the position of "one HR person:"Does this reporting line make sense? It seems a bit unorthodox to me.

Oh... and as for the title "Assistant Town Manager," since this post is about reporting lines... just pretend that it means nothing (more on that in another post).

Tim White