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Water and sewer director seeks helper classification and budget shift after pump failures
Summary
Superintendent Jeff Krueger asked the council to change a maintainer title to a helper/apprentice classification to widen recruitment and to amend the capital budget to pay for replacement pumps after two Stokes Avenue pump motor failures.
City water and sewer superintendent Jeff Krueger told the council the department is amending job classifications and shifting funds after staffing shortages and two major pump failures.
Krueger presented RL25-56, a proposed change to add a water/sewer system maintenance helper title to the staffing table so the department can hire and train employees who do not yet meet the three-year maintainer training requirement. He told council that three years of training are required for the current maintainer title and that vacancies left the department with only one of four maintenance positions filled earlier in the year. Council members asked about training, CDL requirements and whether the maintainer title would be reinstated later; Krueger said the city will provide CDL training and intends to restore the maintainer slots once staff can be trained.
Krueger then presented RL25-57 (finance committee), a request to amend the capital fund budget to cover urgent pump repairs at the Stokes Avenue pumping station on the West Side. Two pumps failed within a week; Krueger said the pumps are submersible units with proprietary motors that are expensive to repair and that repairs can cost roughly three-quarters the price of a new pump. The superintendent said the department used emergency purchase procedures to acquire one replacement and sent the second pump out to bid. The replacement selected is a different manufacturer and came in cheaper; it required an electronic swap to work in the pump house.
Council and staff confirmed the funds used to pay for the pumps are leftover personnel money from 2024 created by vacancies in the sewer personnel line. Krueger said the transfer would not affect the 2025 budgeted positions and that personnel coverage for the year was maintained through temporary staffing from the water division.
Both items were presented in committee and members asked operational questions about recruiting, training, and procurement. The council expedited consideration of the items by unanimous roll call during the work session; recorded roll calls on the motion to expedite showed the item moved forward without recorded opposition in that session.
