Tompkins County facilities director seeks permanent project manager, restoration of service funds and one maintenance worker

Tompkins County Facilities Director Raul Lamaro told the Expanded Budget Committee on Sept. 11 that his department needs a permanent project manager, restored service-contract and building-repair funding and one new maintenance worker as the county’s building portfolio grows. Lamaro, director of facilities, said the department “provides facilities capital maintenance, and cleaning services for our county facilities,” and described a mix of operations, capital engineering work and growing demand tied to planned projects including a center of government building. The requests matter because the county’s footprint of buildings is expanding and preventive maintenance is limited by current staff and funding levels. Lamaro said the project-manager position was originally funded as a multiyear enhancement and 2026 would be the third year; he asked the committee to convert that funding into a permanent target. He also asked the committee to restore $40,000 cut from service contracts and $30,000 cut from building repairs that were reduced two years ago. Lamaro described current staffing at 33 full-time equivalents with a planned increase of one FTE next year. He announced that Liban Babu will start Monday as deputy director; Lamaro said Babu comes from SUNY Broom as assistant director of facilities and brings mechanical-engineering experience. On new hires and equipment, Lamaro requested a maintenance worker position to help manage an increased building inventory and ramp up staffing ahead of the new center of government, which he said is expected in “probably 3 and a half years.” He also proposed a wage-grade increase to address compression between his position and the new deputy. Lamaro said the department wants to replace a more-than-10-year-old sidewalk-plowing tractor and prefers to fund that purchase via highway-equipment bonding rather than a one-time general-fund purchase. He described plans to migrate the department’s more-than-20-year-old work-order system to the county’s OpenGov asset-management platform, and noted that ITS would fund tablets used by maintenance staff out of ITS capital rather than the facilities operating budget. Lamaro estimated $5,000 to migrate data to the new system via OpenGov consultants. Committee members asked about the scope of the tractor (Lamaro said it would serve the downtown core, including the library and Human Services complex), what service contracts cover (elevator and generator maintenance, HVAC controls, security and alarm call centers, waste removal) and where long-term capital needs sit (in capital, not operating, budgets). On capital planning, Lamaro said he maintains linked spreadsheets listing capital needs, projected service lives and priorities. He said life-safety systems and building deterioration are top priorities and that high-ticket items are often roof replacements and parking-lot paving. He discussed the trade-offs of doing large single projects versus spreading limited capital funds across many needs. Lamaro closed by saying several of the requests were endorsed by county administration and by asking the committee whether they had questions about the requests and priorities. Ending: The committee did not take formal votes during this session; Lamaro’s presentation framed the facilities department’s 2026 ask as a combination of maintenance-of-effort restorations, a permanent conversion of a multi-year project-manager enhancement and one operations hire, and it identified several capital priorities that will be considered at future budget review sessions.