Council to forward ordinance adjusting pay bands to enable hiring for IT, GIS and natural-resources positions

Perrysburg — City staff told the Perrysburg Board & Committees that they will ask city council to amend the codified pay-band ordinance so the city can advertise and recruit three newly budgeted positions, including IT and GIS roles and a natural resources manager.

City administration said the changes are needed to proceed with recruitment for positions approved in the 2025 budget and that draft job descriptions from Archer were available for review. “We have the funds to proceed with the recruiting process,” a city staff member said, noting the city must update “the Charter Pavilion that's in sec section 26615-2 of the codified ordinances” before posting the positions.

Why it matters: The ordinance changes affect how the city advertises hiring ranges and remove two existing positions while adding new supervisory posts. Staff said narrowing the advertised hiring range — to reflect a forthcoming Archer wage-study recommendation and the ordinance amendment — will help recruit qualified applicants, especially for IT roles where market clarity influences candidate decisions.

Details from the discussion: Andy (IT/GIS staff) described several organizational options for the new GIS role: leaving GIS as a co-equal function with IT under the same administrator, creating a separate GIS manager (similar to Bowling Green’s model), or assigning GIS under another department such as engineering or public utilities. “GIS is essentially a... co-equal partner with IT,” Andy said, describing current responsibilities distributed across departments and saying the city can assess a new hire’s skills and then determine a longer-term structure.

Staff confirmed the hiring ranges will overlap with Archer’s recommended ranges and that the city plans to narrow the advertised hiring band to be competitive and to reflect internal step charts once the ordinance is adopted. One council member said previous advertising used broad bands (about a $50,000 range) and urged staff to provide a narrower, fair hiring range to applicants.

Natural-resources position: Matt (utilities staff) described the proposed natural resources manager as a hybrid role split between utilities and the general fund, to cover services not currently assigned after retirements. Responsibilities discussed include managing the city’s MS4 (municipal separate stormwater system) requirements, pursuing a potential stormwater utility, running a fats-oils-and-grease (FOG) monitoring program for sanitary sewers, starting a mercury-minimization effort, coordinating lead service identification work, and serving as a regular grant writer for clean-water programs. “Having a dedicated person on staff to do that is our go-to person,” Matt said, explaining the city currently outsources some lead-service work and other consultant tasks.

Staff noted that some contract work (the lead-service program) costs about $50,000 and covers identification work now expected to continue for several years; bringing functions in-house through a manager and grant-writing could change that long-term cost profile but staff did not present a firm projected savings figure at the meeting.

Legislative steps and next actions: A council member said the three positions and the pay-band amendments will be presented as a single ordinance and recommended forwarding it to council. The committee agreed to forward the ordinance and discussed requesting it be considered as an emergency measure so recruiting can proceed with scheduled interview steps. Staff said final job descriptions and exact advertised hiring ranges will be provided before posting.

Ending: Staff asked committee members to review the draft job descriptions provided by Archer and noted follow-up on precise hiring ranges would occur after the ordinance and wage-study details are finalized.