Council completes job revisions

Tim Willert

Last month, the City Council adopted a $580 million budget, but

not before agreeing to reconsider 81 proposed new positions included

in the spending plan.

On Tuesday, the council wrapped up the last in a series of job

review sessions by agreeing to keep eight of nine full-time positions

requested by Public Works Director Kerry Morford.

At least six of the positions would be converted from hourly to

full-time status.

“These are people being paid by the hour without benefits,”

Councilman Gus Gomez said. “So we’re not going out there and spending

$70,000 for a new hire, we’re just spending the difference between

the salary and the benefits.”

Half of the jobs would be filled by custodians to help clean and

maintain 48 city facilities.

Presently, each of the division’s 13 custodians is responsible for

cleaning 67,000 square feet of space. With the additions, the amount

of space covered would drop to 58,000 feet, Morford told the council.

“I had hoped to get down to 50,000 square feet per staff member,”

he said.

Prior to Tuesday’s study session, Morford trimmed the number of

new job requests from 14 to nine.

The council is still considering a request to convert an hourly

project coordinator to full-time status to help assist with a newly

created project management section in Public Works that plans and

develops major capital construction projects. The position would pay

$85,225 annually, including benefits.

That section, Morford told the council, will be responsible for 22

projects costing $120 million.

“We are unable to handle the workload right now,” Morford said.

Also on Tuesday, the council approved two full-time positions --

program specialist and housing technician -- requested by the city’s

Community Development and Housing Division. They are program

specialist and housing technician. Both are hourly conversions.

Because of a reduction in grant funding, nine additional new jobs

included in the budget were eliminated prior to council review,

officials said.

Since the council announced plans to review each of the 81

positions, 18 have been eliminated.

Assuming the council voted Tuesday night to repeal the city’s

citywide rental housing inspection program, an additional 12 jobs

earmarked for the program will have been eliminated, Finance Director

Robert Franz said.