Placerville council, staff say water reclamation staffing tied to upcoming rate study

Placerville — Councilmembers and staff flagged understaffing and operational risk at the city's Water Reclamation Facility during the May 20 budget workshop, and said a pending water/sewer cost‑of‑service study will drive decisions about restoring or changing positions.

"I just I just wanna reiterate the importance of these positions at the water reclamation facility because we are severely understaffed right now," said a councilmember during discussion of the draft budget. The councilmember described a senior operator who “can't take a vacation” because the plant lacks sufficient backup staffing.

Staff described the budget approach as a temporary deferral and a reorganization rather than immediate layoffs. "What this is doing is this is reclassifying some of those positions to have it better organized at the plant,” said Cleve, a staff member, noting the council already addressed the chief plant operator salary at a previous meeting. Cleve said the draft recommends abolishing an “operator 4” position while hiring senior operators under a different classification.

Nut graf: Staff and council tied longer‑term staffing decisions to the outcome of a rate study by Bartle Wells and said the sooner that study is completed, the sooner some deferred positions can be reconsidered and possibly funded through adjusted rates.

Key points from staff and council - Rate study dependency: Staff repeatedly said the water/sewer cost‑of‑service rate study (consultant: Bartle Wells) will inform whether and how to restore or reclassify positions at the plant. "We're gonna do a rate study...that rate study is gonna tell us...to hire all these people back, we're gonna have to raise rates," one councilmember said in the meeting. - Operational risk: Council members and commenters warned that prolonged understaffing could risk failure to meet water quality standards and possible enforcement fines. A public commenter told the council that past failures had resulted in penalties and that insufficient staffing could lead to similar enforcement costs. - Interim funding: Staff recommended using fund balance in the near term to cover water and sewer fund shortfalls ($171,000 deficit for water; $301,000 deficit for sewer reported in the draft), and then recouping costs through future rates if the rate study supports increases.

Ending: Council asked staff to return with the Bartle Wells rate study results and emphasized concern about employee retention and operational continuity at the water reclamation facility.