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Council presses water superintendent on overtime, leaks and lift-station reliability
Summary
Council members pressed the water superintendent and operations staff about recurring leaks, heavy overtime at two treatment plants, diesel use and repeated lift-station failures; staff described staffing limits, reliance on contractors and plans to alternate duties to reduce overtime.
Council members on Monday examined water department overtime and persistent sewer and water leaks after department reports showed some employees logging extended hours over recent months.
The water superintendent (identified in the meeting as Oscar; role: water superintendent) told the council that recurring equipment failures, power outages and aging pump stations have required frequent after-hours work. He said staffing constraints mean a small maintenance crew covers three systems and that some pump stations need daily checks and diesel refueling to keep temporary bypass pumps operating.
Council members said they saw personnel with unusually high overtime in quarterly reports and asked for more documentation tying overtime to specific events. One council member said, “If a person works 900 hours in 3 months, there should be a tangible product,” and urged department managers to account for overtime with written work orders and documented results.
Department staff said the highest overtime totals were concentrated among operators who responded to after-hours power failures and pump-station problems; an operator who previously logged very high overtime is no longer with the city, and staff have begun rotating weekend diesel and station checks to reduce individual burden. The superintendent said contractors are still needed for large repairs but that additional in-house staff would reduce recurring emergency overtime.
The council also heard that lightning recently struck a rental pump at a lift station, that a replacement unit failed and that staff obtained another replacement as quickly as possible to limit sewer backups; the superintendent described those events as part of the broader reliability challenges at several remote stations.
Council members directed staff to produce clearer, event-linked documentation of overtime and to propose staffing or operational changes that would reduce persistent after-hours demand. No formal budget adjustments or hiring decisions were made at the meeting, but the council scheduled follow-up oversight and emphasized documentation before approving recurring overtime.
