Mount Vernon is shifting positions and changing job titles to reorganize its Water and Wastewater departments.
The city is following a similar process used to restructure the Public Works Department.
In addition to the top-level director who already reports to Rick Dzik, safety-service director, an assistant utilities director will be added. The City Council authorized this move.
"Then, what we want to create are some non-union supervisors," Dzik said.
He said a wastewater superintendent position would be created to manage employees at the wastewater plant. A billing office administrator would be in charge of the billing office and staff, plus other administrative duties. Those duties would include some related to EPA reporting notifications during boil-water advisories, the department's work order system, radio meter reading system, and billing office software.
The assistant director will oversee distribution and collection – everything except the water plants.
"We have a great chief operator [at the water plants] who enjoys being the chief operator position," Dzik said. That that role would be left in place.
The reorganization occurred at the union level, Dzik said. The city had approximately 30 different classifications of employees, so streamlining was the goal.
"You could be a pipe fitter, you could be a meter reader, you could be a maintenance worker, you could be an equipment operator, you could be a lab tech, you could be a pre-treatment coordinator," he said. "And it just became so overwhelming with how many different types of jobs that have silos."
There are now approximately 10 classifications, after union negotiations.
"What happened in that is that our lab techs became what we call operation and maintenance technicians, which meant that they could be operators in the plant or they could be lab techs," Dzik said.
The pay disparity kept employees from getting this cross-training in the past. But, now that the pay is equal, Dzik said they took advantage of the opportunity.
"Another thing I think it's important to mention about this restructuring is, our opportunity to do cross-training offers a more breadth of skill sets, rather than being siloed," Mayor Matt Starr said.
He said that millennials and other people seeking positions can look for more opportunities without being siloed or isolated into positions.
Crews come in from vacation, FD helps with busted water lines
Starr said the recent winter storm with sub-zero temperatures had utility crews working 196 hours over that weekend. That included every single employee, from distribution to collection. One person was out on vacation, but others came in on their days off to help.
Starr said many of the shifts lasted more than eight hours and into the early morning hours.
The Fire Department was able to turn off service for a handful of busted water lines before water crews were on-site, he said. That helped and was part of a team effort. In addition, the adverse situation brought out the best in team members.
"Several of our distribution and collection crew members were scheduled off [and] on vacation, [but] they still came in to support those people who are here and help them out," Starr said. "And that says a lot about them."
