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Board approves DPW technical-services reorganization after public comment on planner position
Summary
The Board of Finance approved a Department of Public Works reorganization that eliminates a planner position and adds an associate public works/transportation engineer role; a public commenter warned the change could leave the city short on planning capacity for TDM and ordinances.
The Burlington City Board of Finance unanimously approved a DPW technical-services reorganization that removes an associate planner position and adds an associate public works (transportation) engineer position.
Public commenter Sharon Buscher spoke during the public forum and asked the board to consider possible staffing consequences, saying in part, "if this is a transportation planning position, that is being eliminated and it strikes me as odd." She warned that removing a planner from DPW could shift responsibilities to the planning department and create staffing strain for planning work tied to Transportation Demand Management (TDM) and ordinances.
City Engineer Laura Wheelock described a staffing review in response to turnover and said the planner role in question had been vacant; she told the board, "I wanna reassure you that the workload that we do in our group is not being pushed to any other division or department." Wheelock said the senior planner is a professional engineer and that associate public works engineers provide billable technical work that the division relies on.
A councilor moved the recommended reorganization and the board adopted it unanimously. Wheelock said the change was intended to make the position billable, reduce recurring training burden for short-term hires, and preserve project delivery capability within DPW.
