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Newberg city manager flags summer water production, falling public‑works productivity in four‑year review
Summary
City manager Will presented a four‑year data review to the Newberg City Council highlighting a summer daily water peak of about 4,100,000 gallons, declining construction and inspection workloads since 2022, rising payroll costs (about 9% per year) and a fall in public‑works work orders. Staff proposed operational changes and follow‑ups.
City manager Will told the Newberg City Council on March 16 that the most important metric to track in the city’s four‑year statistical review is summer daily water production, which reached about 4,100,000 gallons per day in the most recent summer and could drive the timing for future water‑plant capacity decisions.
“What I’m trying to say is … we had the biggest solid run‑in the summer of 4,100,000 gallons per day this summer,” Will said, urging staff to drill into daily summer production and compare recent summers to refine forecasting.
Will walked the council through a range of operational metrics: building permits and planning decisions have declined from 2021–22 highs, building inspections data are down, and payroll costs have risen roughly 9% per year—driven largely by health‑insurance increases—despite headcounts remaining largely unchanged. He said accounts‑payable patterns show fiscal‑year seasonality tied to capital spending and recommended maintaining prudent reserves.
The review also flagged declining output on work orders completed by Public Works. Will said he is restructuring crews into dedicated utility teams (streets, potable water, sewer/stormwater) to try to increase productivity and said staff will monitor whether that improves completion rates. “This isn’t good. We can do better, and we’re going to do better,” he said.
On public safety metrics, Will said nonemergency phone calls have declined while website and social‑media contacts have increased; he credited the city’s PIO staff and asked for a breakdown of how much of the online engagement is police‑related versus general city communications. Chief Kozmiche explained an enforcement push—prompted by an email to officers—caused a spike in citations in one month.
Will identified several follow‑up items he will return to council with, including a more detailed analysis of summer‑period water production and a breakdown of social‑media activity by PIO staff to test correlations with decreased nonemergency calls.
The presentation did not include new policy actions; Will asked for council direction on any additional analyses they want and signaled he will bring back more granular numbers on water production and communications metrics.
