Discussion Regarding the Pending Public Works Superintendent Vacancy and the Process to Fill the Role

As the City Council is aware, Public Works Superintendent Grant Riemer submitted a letter of resignation.  In the letter, Mr. Riemer stated that his last day with the City of Ramsey will be July 8, 2022. 

This is a key staff position that has a significant impact on the City.  Staff is committed to filling this role in a manner that meets the City's mission, core values, and guiding principles.  

Staff met and developed a possible restructuring option within Public Works.   This restructure proposal is to eliminate the Public Works Superintendent position, returning to the model that was in place prior to Mr. Riemer becoming the Superintendent. 

Staff proposes adding back the Public Works Director and creating an Assistant Public Works Director position, eliminating the title of Parks and Assistant Public Works Superintendent (Mark Riverblood), along with some changes in the Engineering Department, explained below. 

For the sake of immediate clarity, this proposal includes promoting current staff and hiring one Engineering Technician II.  

2022 / 2023 Proposal:

1. Promote City Engineer Bruce Westby to Public Works Director - retain City Engineer status
2. Promote Parks and Assistant Public Works Superintendent to Assistant Public Works Director - retain current duties - add backup to the Public Works Director
3. Promote Civil Engineer II Joe Feriancek to Assistant City Engineer (other detail will be provided at the meeting)
4. Promote Engineering Technician II Logan Czech (currently an Engineer in Training) to Engineering Technician III (other detail will be provided at the meeting)
5. Hire a replacement Engineering Technician II to inspect construction in 2023

Engineering Department Benefits
The Engineering Department will benefit from better understanding the City's maintenance operations relative to streets, sidewalks, trails and utilities.  This increased understanding will allow the Engineering Department to update City design standards to better allow for maintenance of the City's infrastructure based on existing equipment and staff, and to incorporate more maintenance friendly features and materials.   

The Engineering Department will also benefit by being better able to prioritize Pavement Management Program (PMP) projects within the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) due to having a better understanding of pavement conditions throughout the City.  Engineering Staff update PMP projects within the CIP each fall, which includes reprioritizing project schedules.  This is done primarily by reviewing updated PASER values obtained from the Public Works Superintendent each fall.  While this has generally worked well, there have been several occasions when Engineering Staff rescheduled PMP projects based on updated PASER values only to have neighborhood residents review the updated CIP after it is adopted and then contact Staff to voice their frustrations that repairs to their streets were moved out a year or more.
 
Additionally, the Engineering Department will benefit from having a well-defined staffing succession plan in place, allowing Staff to know they have the ability to grow their knowledge and advance within the department if they choose to do so.   


Public Works Operations Benefits
The benefit of having a PW director type of department structure, is that it gives a clearer line of responsibility to people, both inside and outside of the organization.   The current system of separate engineering and PW departments has worked well, but with the current rate of development in the city now and into the future, having one person acting as the final decision maker will likely be more efficient.

Parks Division (Long Term Planning, Etc.) Benefits
Mr. Riverblood's expertise and passion have long been evident in our park system when it comes to working with the residents in the community and developers.  Mark has consistently, throughout his career,  taken the lead role when it comes to planning/designing our park spaces and following that vision through construction. Mark is also very familiar with the day-to-day operations and processes used in PW  and will be a great asset to Mr. Westby in that capacity as well.

Alternatives
Staff feels this is the best approach to filling the void following Mr. Riemer’s departure; however, alternative options will certainly be discussed as per the City Council’s thoughts.


It may be interesting for the City Council to be aware of other similarly sized cities that have Public Works Directors who are either Professional Engineers or oversee the engineering departments.   They are as follows:
 

Columbia Heights	19,496	Metro	Public Works Director/City Engineer
Cottage Grove	34,502	Metro	Public Works Director/City Engineer
Crystal	22,151	Metro	City Engineer/Public Works Director
Elk River	25,243	Central	Public Works Director/Chief Engineer
Fridley	27,668	Metro	Director Public Works/City Engineer
Hastings	22,491	Metro	* Public Works Director
Hopkins	18,382	Metro	* Public Works Director
Maplewood	37,755	Metro	Public Works Director/City Engineer
Oakdale	28,315	Metro	Public Works Director/City Engineer
Prior Lake	26,401	Metro	Public Works Director/City Engineer
Richfield	37,154	Metro	* Director of Public Works
Rosemount	24,000	Metro	PW Director/City Engineer
Roseville	33,660	Metro	* Director Of Public Works
Shakopee	41,123	Metro	City Engineer/Public Works Director
Stillwater	19,341	Metro	Director of Public Works/City Engineer
* Public Works Director title does not include "City Engineer" but the employee  oversees the Engineering Department

Data Source:  League of Minnesota Cities, summer 2021

This case is expected to take 20 minutes.
 

There is no funding required at this time.  Future funding needs will be provided as soon as possible and this case will be updated.  

Colleen Lasher, Administrative Services Director
Brian Hagen, Interim City Administrator/Community Development Director

The intended outcome of this work-session is for the City Council to provide staff, by consensus, feedback as to how to proceed.