Council completes job revisions
Tim Willert
Last month, the City Council adopted a $580 million budget, but
not before agreeing to reconsider 81 proposed new positions included
in the spending plan.
On Tuesday, the council wrapped up the last in a series of job
review sessions by agreeing to keep eight of nine full-time positions
requested by Public Works Director Kerry Morford.
At least six of the positions would be converted from hourly to
full-time status.
“These are people being paid by the hour without benefits,”
Councilman Gus Gomez said. “So we’re not going out there and spending
$70,000 for a new hire, we’re just spending the difference between
the salary and the benefits.”
Half of the jobs would be filled by custodians to help clean and
maintain 48 city facilities.
Presently, each of the division’s 13 custodians is responsible for
cleaning 67,000 square feet of space. With the additions, the amount
of space covered would drop to 58,000 feet, Morford told the council.
“I had hoped to get down to 50,000 square feet per staff member,”
he said.
Prior to Tuesday’s study session, Morford trimmed the number of
new job requests from 14 to nine.
The council is still considering a request to convert an hourly
project coordinator to full-time status to help assist with a newly
created project management section in Public Works that plans and
develops major capital construction projects. The position would pay
$85,225 annually, including benefits.
That section, Morford told the council, will be responsible for 22
projects costing $120 million.
“We are unable to handle the workload right now,” Morford said.
Also on Tuesday, the council approved two full-time positions --
program specialist and housing technician -- requested by the city’s
Community Development and Housing Division. They are program
specialist and housing technician. Both are hourly conversions.
Because of a reduction in grant funding, nine additional new jobs
included in the budget were eliminated prior to council review,
officials said.
Since the council announced plans to review each of the 81
positions, 18 have been eliminated.
Assuming the council voted Tuesday night to repeal the city’s
citywide rental housing inspection program, an additional 12 jobs
earmarked for the program will have been eliminated, Finance Director
Robert Franz said.