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Committee approves splitting facilities functions into three positions amid staff concern
Summary
Committee approved creating three physical-plant positions — maintenance manager, custodial & grounds manager, and facilities project manager — to replace a consolidated buildings-and-grounds role. Employees and union members urged care on job descriptions and grading to avoid loss of protections; the roll-call vote passed.
Champaign County’s committee voted Jan. 26 to amend the schedule of authorized positions to create three roles in the physical plant and administrative services departments: maintenance manager, custodial & grounds manager, and facilities project manager.
County staff said the current combined buildings-and-grounds role contains an “immense amount of responsibility” that mixes hands-on maintenance with capital-project oversight, and splitting the job would allow more focused work and career pathways. "By dividing it into three, we're trying to be able to provide more focus and more ability to dive into each specific area," a county staff member explained.
Several employees and union members who testified during public comment urged caution. Jason Benda, a facilities department employee, said eliminating the facilities director and building & grounds manager and replacing them with three positions could undermine reporting structures and said the job descriptions should be regraded because the director of administration would supervise many more direct reports. "There was a deputy in place who could run the department's operations," Benda said. Chris Smith, the building and grounds manager, told the committee the restructure came as a surprise and warned it could be neither cost effective nor retain essential staff.
Board members who supported the change said separating maintenance, custodial/grounds and capital-project duties is a common practice that can reduce reliance on outside architects and engineers for smaller projects and create clearer reporting lines. Opponents asked for comparative job documentation and clearer cost-benefit evidence. The item passed on a roll-call vote recorded in the transcript.
What happens next: staff will implement the amended organizational chart and proceed with job descriptions and (as discussed in public comment) potentially review job grades and bargaining-unit impacts.
