Judiciary committee backs new utilities superintendent role and updates to public works positions

The Judiciary, Personnel & Licensing Committee voted unanimously to recommend creation of a utilities superintendent position and to update related job descriptions for the public works director and public works superintendent.

Staff said the new position would mirror the existing public works superintendent role but focus on utilities (water and sewer). The change follows budget discussions and is intended to split oversight between utility operations and other public works functions. Staff reported the village currently has 13 hourly public works staff and six utility staff; the organizational change does not alter those head counts but reallocates supervisory responsibility.

Staff and trustees discussed practical implications: winter operations require cross-functional coordination and all hourly staff may still be called for emergency or winter duty; staff described the overtime-call procedure (weekly tracking of hours worked and charged, resorting call lists by totals so workers cannot cherry-pick overtime). Trustees asked whether the village would recruit from within or seek external candidates; staff said they expected internal candidates were unlikely and that recruitment would be based on required field and desk-reporting experience, including GIS familiarity.

Staff said the new utilities superintendent would handle compliance reporting, grant work and increased regulatory workload (e.g., LCR-related work, TMDL). The position is expected to have compensation roughly in line with the current superintendent given a narrower supervisory span.

Motion and vote: Committee members moved to recommend the utilities superintendent job description and associated updates to the public works superintendent and director job descriptions; the motion passed 3-0. The committee forwarded the recommended job descriptions to the Village Board for approval and posting.