09.03 Staffing Needs Discussion - Laserfiche WebLink

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Public Works Director's Comments • Quite often this department has had history of or felt the need to: o take vacations only in certain seasons 0 operate heavy machinery in adverse conditions while sick o have the inability to adhere to industrial standards of safe practices (many streets projects and/or confined spaces require more staff present and trained) o incur unnecessary risks when logistically forced to work solo on certain projects. (Employees are inherently at more risk when dealing with electricity, ladders, traffic, &certain public interactions when solo) • When staff are out for extended or unexpected medical leave or simply leave w/o adequate notice (termination or job change). This leaves the city vulnerable to provide even basic services such as snow removal, basic maintenance, public response, etc. • Our PW equipment as you likely know, is often very expensive and requires significant training for operation and safety, and familiarization with city policy. It is not practical to expect to find skilled and experienced staff on a short notice or PT basis. In reality, those skilled laborers are already in full-time positions and unavailable in most smaller communities. • Many of our tasks if neglected result is public hazards and less desirable streets, parks, and neighborhoods • Although obvious expenditures are required to support additional staff, we would like to have the capability to contract less (some streets/parks tasks) ➢ A great recent example is we currently need approximately 30-man hours of mowing to accomplish our 'standard'parks/property obligations. So, essentially at least one staff is tied up for the vast majority of the week on this one task. Many of our other tasks this time of year(pothole repair, shouldering, tree removal, large landscape/park projects, plow maintenance,just to name a fewJ require at least 2 staff. With all our other routine solo requirements (garbage, plant upkeep, oil bin, building checks/cleaning, public response, cemetery, dog park maintenance,fleet maintenance, Supervisory administrative requirements), it makes ir very difficult to do things properly and accommodate public needs. This is how things generally operate when we are at full staff in healthy condition. Another skilled person would not only improve department capabilities, but also allow for better administrative attention, customer service, and training needs and promote department growth of capabilities, performance, and community enhancement.