Public Works and Utilities outlines 2025 priorities: asset management, accreditation and staffing challenges

Public Works and Utilities (PWU) delivered a department-wide budget and work-plan presentation to Westminster City Council on Feb. 10, outlining priorities for 2025 that include a comprehensive asset-management rollout, an organizational self-assessment, workload analysis and a public engagement program to document operational work.

Why it matters: PWU manages the city's built infrastructure: water distribution, wastewater collection and treatment, streets, traffic systems, stormwater, fleet and facilities. The department described a large capital workload in 2025 and highlighted staffing and technical-skill constraints that could affect project delivery.

Key numbers and organizational structure: The department has roughly 211 employees, including about 98 in utilities. The utilities division budget was presented at roughly $29 million for 2025; operations (streets, fleet, facilities) showed a FY25 budget in the mid-teens of millions (presentation cited about $17 million). PWU staff said the city has over $42 million in capital projects slated for 2025 across funds and more than 70 capital projects in design or construction.

Four strategic priorities for 2025: - Asset management: Staff are integrating GIS, work-order and maintenance systems to produce a first-generation asset-management gap analysis and long-term replacement strategy by year-end. - Self-assessment and accreditation: PWU plans to use American Public Works Association (APWA) accreditation materials to standardize processes, policies and training across divisions. - Workload analysis: A department-wide time-and-task review will identify what work is being done, who does it and whether staffing levels match demand. - Engagement and documentation: PWU intends to compile and communicate the department's operational activities to improve transparency and public understanding.

Operations and maintenance highlights: PWU reported between roughly 30 and 50 water main breaks annually and said a target is fewer than 15 breaks per 100 miles of pipe. Staff said the water distribution construction group typically replaces 6,000'to 10,000 linear feet of pipe per year in neighborhoods with repeated failures and that crews coordinate replacements with street projects to minimize repeated disruption.

Staffing constraints and technical roles: Staff identified several hard-to-fill technical positions including traffic signal technicians (two staff currently manage after-hours outages), an emergency vehicle technician for fire apparatus maintenance, and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) technicians. PWU leaders said these specialized trade and technician roles take time to train and are limited in the contractor marketplace.

Capital and project highlights: Major projects mentioned for 2025 included drinking-water facility work and finished/raw water lines, a municipal court project, a wastewater master plan update, traffic-signal improvements at multiple intersections, and continued expansion of the reclaimed-water distribution system.

Other notes: Staff said Google Fiber deployment coordination is active; city staff meet biweekly with the vendor and the primary project constraint is weather. PWU and finance have initiated a utilities cost-of-service study, which staff said will help inform future rate proposals and capital funding decisions.

Next steps and council direction: Councilors asked staff to bring asset- and pavement-condition lists to upcoming budget deliberations so elected officials can evaluate tradeoffs across services. PWU said it will provide a first-generation asset gap analysis by the end of 2025, return with the cost-of-service work as it completes, and continue updates to council about staffing and project sequencing.