Council advances first read to split operations into two groups to improve oversight

The Sedro‑Woolley City Council heard a first reading and moved forward on a proposal to reorganize the Operations Division into two subgroups: Streets and Stormwater, and Facilities, Parks and Cemetery. Director Bill Bullock and operations staff member Nathan Salcina said the split is intended to reduce spans of control that accumulated after retirements and to allow more dedicated attention to parks, facilities and cemetery operations.

Bullock told the council the city mows roughly twice the acreage now compared with 2013 and that creating two supervisory groups would improve efficiency and allow seasonal personnel sharing between groups. Nathan Salcina, who described having sought the split for more than a decade, said the plan would promote from within for the new streets and stormwater supervisor and that the incoming supervisor would overlap for about a month with longtime staff member David Davidson to transfer institutional knowledge.

Council members asked clarifying questions about supervisory lines on the org chart and confirmed the city planned an internal promotion. Several councilmembers, including Clark and Peterson, expressed support; Councilman Henderson said the modeling is “industry standard” for separating enterprise stormwater management from parks duties. The council made a motion to proceed and the first read was recorded; staff said they could return with a final action at a subsequent meeting if the council wished.

Why it matters: The reorganization aims to address workload and oversight risks as the city expands services and acreage maintained. A split could change supervisory assignments and create a new advertised position for streets and stormwater supervision while keeping seasonal staffing flexibility across groups.

The council treated the proposal as a first read and did not take final adoption action at this meeting.