Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Stormwater Management topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board clarifies stormwater oversight: engineering retains SMO responsibility
Summary
After confusion about recent stormwater training and delegation, the Grand Island board directed that the engineering department retain the designated SMO role while field staff report findings back to engineering.
The Grand Island town board reviewed recent stormwater training attendance and clarified delegation of the town’s Stormwater Management Officer (SMO) responsibilities, directing that engineering retain SMO authority while field staff report observations back to engineering.
A board member said two employees from a department would attend a Wednesday training to identify issues in the field, but emphasized that final responsibility should remain with engineering. "I wanna make sure the responsibility for SMO stays in the engineering department because it is engineering. Absolutely," a board member said.
Town staff said Bob is the designated SMO and that field employees should pass notes from training back to Bob so he can coordinate with contractors or other parties. "Bob is 100% the SML [SMO]. Yes. But he wants anyone that's in the field, if they note anything that they gather from the training to report them back to the SMO so that he can deal with the contractors or whoever is not unreasonable," a staff member said.
Board members asked that the lines of responsibility be defined clearly so employees do not assume work is another department’s task and to avoid delays caused by ambiguous handoffs. "You do this and you do this, period. Because it's back and forth stuff. Wasting a lot of my time," a board member said.
No formal vote or change to policy was taken; the board asked staff to document responsibility for stormwater oversight and to ensure field staff report findings to the engineering SMO for follow-up.
