Agenda - Council Work Session - 05/27/2025

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CC Work Session Meeting Date: 05/27/2025 Primary Strategic Plan Initiative: Not Applicable 2. 1. Information Title: Discuss City Engineer/Public Works Director Role Separation Purpose/Background: Purpose: The purpose of this case is to discuss the potential separation of roles for the City Engineer/Public Works Director, and resulting reorganizations of the Engineering and Public Works Departments. Background: In June 2022, the City Council approved reclassifying City Engineer Bruce Westby to the dual role of City Engineer/Public Works Director to oversee all of Public Works and Engineering. Meeting minutes from the May 24th City Council Work Session where this reclassification was discussed are attached for reference (see case 2.02). The goals of moving to this dual -role position were to help develop and retain existing city staff through well-defined staffing succession plans and allowing staff in Engineering and Public Works to grow their knowledge of each other's practices and processes by working more closely together, thereby allowing Engineering staff to design and construct improvement projects that allow for more cost-effective and efficient operations and maintenance of improvements post -construction. During discussions, staff expressed that the dual role of City Engineer/Public Works Director would be an effective transition plan, at least for a few years. The three-year mark is nearing an end, and staff recommends a final restructuring, effective January 2026. More information regarding this will be discussed at the meeting and through the 2026 budget discussions, but in summary it is recommended for Mr. Westby to assume the role of Public Works Director in January 2026 so he can begin focusing his efforts on several high -priority initiatives at Public Works. The first high -priority issue Mr. Westby wants to focus on is a space needs analysis for the Public Works campus and surrounding city -owned properties to understand how/when the Public Works facility may need to be expanded, and which city -owned properties should be retained for additional space needs. This would include an analysis of the current and projected fleet of city vehicles, not only for Public Works but for Police and Fire as well since Police and Fire each assumed control of one of the three former Public Works buildings west of Jasper Street, with Public Works retaining ownership of the third building for use as a cold storage building where vehicles are stored seasonally. However, additional space may soon be needed for vehicle storage for one or all of these departments, which would likely prompt the need to expand the Public Works facility and/or construct a new building(s) on city -owned properties west and/or east of Jasper Street and south of 143rd Avenue. The second high -priority issue Mr. Westby wants to tackle is to work closely with Public Works staff while implementing the new Stormwater Facilities Maintenance Policy and the Trail and Sidewalk Maintenance Policy to ensure the implementation of these policies is completed as cost-effectively and efficiently as practical. The third high -priority issue Mr. Westby wants to focus on is updating several existing Public Works policies that are resulting in increased costs and inefficiencies for Public Works staff, and development of new policies to better define procedures and improve public engagement and transparency. Mr. Westby also wants to focus on succession planning for key Public Works staff to help promote and retain