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Placerville approves engineering reorganization and salary adjustments to support $42M in CIP work
Summary
Council approved abolishing the assistant engineer position, renaming the city engineer role to "City Engineer/Director of Engineering," and raising senior and other engineering salaries to recruit staff to deliver $42 million in capital projects; staff said the package nets $105,477 in FY26-27 but noted the assistant engineer historically recovered significant grant costs.
Placerville's City Council unanimously approved a staffing and pay restructuring for the engineering division on July 14 aimed at shoring up capacity to deliver a multi-year capital program.
Miss Savage (engineering staff) told the council the division currently has multiple vacancies: the assistant and associate engineer positions have been vacant since June 2024 and the senior civil engineer recently resigned. The engineering division has committed to delivering eight capital improvement projects in the near term with construction costs she estimated at about $42,000,000. To recruit experienced candidates, staff proposed a 10% salary increase for the senior civil engineer, proportionate adjustments to the associate civil engineer and city engineer, and abolishing the assistant engineer position to offset costs. Staff estimated a net savings of $105,477 for fiscal year 2026-27 but also cautioned the assistant engineer historically carried a high rate of cost recovery on grant-funded CIP work.
Council members asked whether cost-recovery work done by the assistant engineer could be shifted to other positions; Savage said assignments and cost-recovery credits would be adjusted based on new hires' skill sets. Resident Sue Rodman spoke in support of higher pay to retain local workers and avoid repeated recruitment and training costs.
After discussion, the council moved and seconded the staff recommendation to amend job titles, adopt the new salary schedule (effective July 18, 2026), and abolish the assistant engineer position; the motion passed on a unanimous roll-call vote.
Why it matters: city staff said recruiting experienced engineers is essential to meet federally funded and other CIP deadlines; council action alters pay structure and the department's organizational chart to try to retain and attract staff while preserving grant-funded cost recovery.
What happens next: Human Resources and the engineering department will implement the job-title change, post adjusted positions as needed, and assign cost-recovery tasks based on future hires.
