The City Council approved a budget amendment on Oct. 8 to reclassify 87 positions in the Public Utilities Department into a consolidated Utility Operator job series with five salary “rungs” ranging from entry to lead.

Interim Public Utilities Director Jesse Roach said the proposal creates a single water utility operator job with five levels (entry, basic, intermediate, advanced, lead). He described the change as a career ladder that would align pay targets across water and wastewater functions, provide hiring flexibility and encourage in‑house training and certification. Roach said target pay increases would apply at each rung — roughly a 20% step between levels — and that the BAR would budget vacancies at the top (lead) level to give managers flexibility when hiring.

Union concerns and council discussion

AFSCME Local 399 representative Luis D'Amelo told the council the union did not support the reclassification as presented. He said the membership supports training and career ladders but objected to what they view as ‘‘plug‑and‑play’’ assignments that could move staff across very different facilities and workloads without adequate recognition of distinct duties. The union asked the city to track employee work history, give pay recognition when employees earn certifications, and ensure career ladder promotions are meaningful.

Roach and city manager Mark Scott said the proposal is intended to create incentives and opportunities — for example, starting an eligible hire at $20 an hour and growing to $40+ with training and certifications — and to provide redundancy across facilities where appropriate. Scott said he supported the approach as the best way the city has found to address operator shortages.

Budget and vote

Roach described the BAR as roughly $1,000,000. He said about $200,000 of that amount would provide immediate pay increases for existing employees for the remainder of the fiscal year and the remainder would create hiring flexibility and incentive targets for future hires. The council passed the BAR by roll call (motion approved; roll call recorded on the transcript). The council vote recorded a majority approval; the measure was approved as presented.

Follow up and implementation

Councilors and staff said the change will be followed by retention incentives tied to certification levels, targeted recruitment (including outreach to local schools and community college partners) and requests to expand apprenticeship and training pathways. Staff also said they would work on dual‑certification incentives and on administrative details requested by AFSCME.

Provenance

Topic intro: Item 9b introduced the reclassification and BAR and Jesse Roach began the presentation.

Topic finish: The council called the roll and approved the BAR to reclassify positions.