The Kenai City Council met on Wednesday, February 7th to discuss a resolution that would affect the Public Works Department.
The resolution (2024-05) takes after its original ordinance (3353-2023), which adopted the FY2024 annual budget, salary schedule, an employee classification plan, and authorized staffing table for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 2023, and ending June 30, 2024.
This resolution would amend the employee classification plan by reclassifying the public works building official/manager position to a building official. The council would also determine how the pay rate would be adjusted for the readjusted position.
Currently, the Public Works Department is looking for a full-time Building Official/Manager, as the position will be vacant as of February 17th.
The role of the Building Official within the Public Works Department would involve critical responsibilities related to the inspection and compliance of various buildings with applicable codes and
regulations; and a significant increase in building permits from 2022 and 2023 emphasizes the importance of focusing on the core job duties and responsibilities of the Building Official to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in building compliance and administrative functions.
This resolution amends the City’s Classification Plan to reclassify the Building Official/Manager classification in Public Works. This change would remove manager responsibilities, rename the
class to “Building Official”, and amend the hourly pay range. This class of employees is staffed with a single position, was initially classified as “Building Official,” and was reclassified in 2018 as part of the FY19 budget process.
The 2018 amendment added supervisory responsibilities, oversight of the Building Maintenance division of the Public Works Department, and City-wide Safety Coordinator duties formerly handled between the Public Works Director and the Building Maintenance Lead positions. As part of this amendment, the salary range was increased two steps to reflect the additional duties.
Since that time, the position has been considered “difficult to fill” and was vacant for over a year, between March 19th, 2023 and April 4th, 2022.
The Public Works Director worked with Human Resources to recommend changes to the job description to remove the supervision of Building Maintenance and related responsibilities, which would be temporarily reassigned to the Public Works Director. This would only be until the current Public Works organizational structure assessment is complete. This proposed change would benefit the City by allowing the Building Official to concentrate on core responsibilities, including building inspection, compliance, administrative direction, and effective communications with the community.
Council member Baisden had some concerns when it came to filling the position. Oftentimes, not everyone has the proper certification. By the time they get certified, they tend to move elsewhere and leave the position vacant.
“If we’re going to hire this position, I don’t know how you have it written up, but it should not be written up where you come in here and you get 18 months to get these certifications. This city requires us to have certain certifications by the state of Alaska because we take a deferment from them. So what I’m asking you guys is to make sure that we don’t bring somebody in here, we hire somebody, and we’re gonna allow them to take 18 months and when they get certified on our dime, they leave because now they’ve been trained. We need to bring the expertise in here that already has it and it’s required. We don’t get to have that and I don’t think we have had it,” said Baisden.
Public Works Director Scott Curtain says that the position was open for a year. Two applicants were flown out, and one was offered the job, but relocation seemed to be a big issue for those interested in the position.
“I think they all had an interest and, you know, kind of a dream of coming to Alaska, and when the reality really hit them, when they started looking and doing their due diligence of wanting to bring everything they own up here, and what it was gonna cost to do that, it changed their opinions, to be honest with you. So, I would love to see more local candidates it’s just, it’s been it’s been a struggle. You know, we see a lot of folks that, you know, see themselves within the construction industry, but they just what you said Council Member Baisden, and they don’t they don’t have those certifications walking in the door. And that is somewhat of the struggle that we have,” said Curtain.
After a unanimous vote, it was decided that the resolution’s final decision would be postponed to the February 21st, 2024 meeting.
