In December 2018, City Council approved a plan for Public Works organizational structure changes. Many of these structure changes were proposed due to an increase in city infrastructure, substantial growth in park acreage, substantial increase in development and an increase in capital improvement projects. Many of the approved changes have been implemented as proposed.

The city recently accepted the retirement of a Public Works Senior Technician and the resignation of a Senior Engineering Technician. These two positions were subsequently filled, promoting one internal candidate and hiring an external candidate from a very small pool of qualified candidates. Promoting our internal staff member resulted in the need to backfill his position, Engineering Technician.

While it has been increasingly difficult to find Engineering Technicians due to a well known shortage in our industry, the Public Works Engineering Division has also been focusing on streamlining project and development delivery within the Engineering Division more efficiently. Our plan is to focus on the heavy workload of "project delivery" with our internal staff vs. the detailed project "inspection". This new structure will have city staff performing a higher level of quality control/quality assurance over the  developer's engineer and inspectors. This also helps to put the project design and inspection responsibilities on the (Developer's) Engineer of Record for projects so they can certify the project under their state license at the end of the project. 

It should also be noted that several Engineering positions were eliminated when the economy turned downward back 10 years ago. We are now reorganizing the project workload and delivery so we are better able to stabilize the staffing levels without having to eliminate positions during low development periods, yet being able to absorb the heavier workload during high development periods.  

Changing the Public Works Engineering Technician to a Graduate Engineer position will help us deliver the current and expected upcoming heavy workload. Without this change, it will be necessary to further outsource work or add internal staff.

The existing Engineering Technician position is at pay grade 150 in the 2019 non-union pay plan; the Graduate Engineer position is at pay grade 160. On average, the Graduate Engineer position pay is estimated to be $7,500 more per year than the Engineering Technician.

The current 2019 Public Works Engineering operating budget includes an Engineering Technician position. This position has been vacant for several months. The current engineering operating budget can absorb the difference in wages for the remainder of the year. Future division budgets will be adjusted accordingly. It should also be noted that the increase in engineering fees paid as part of current and upcoming developments will more than cover this increase in the coming years.