How to resolve AdBlock issue? CLEARLAKE, Calif. – As part of its continuing effort to improve the city’s roads, the Clearlake City Council on Thursday night approved the hiring of four new Public Works staffers to complete the creation of a full road crew.
The funding for the hires comes from Measure V, the one-cent sales tax Clearlake voters approved in November 2016 to fund road repairs and improvements.
City Finance Director Chris Becnel told the council that when Measure V first passed but before the city began receiving funds, the council initiated the hiring of five people to do road work.
“We’re now at a point where we have sufficient funds to warrant the hiring of additional persons for Measure V,” Becnel said.
Becnel said that in a 2015 presentation made to the council about the number of persons required for a dirt road grading team, it was reported that a full road crew required nine people: two flaggers, two support, and one operator each for the dump truck, loader, grader, water truck and roller.
Those nine crew members are the minimum number required to safely handle grading work, Becnel explained.
The council was asked to consider the request on Thursday rather than waiting for the midyear budget review in about a month due to some key factors, Becnel said.
Those factors included that the process for hiring the first five staffers was slower because of demand for workers. “There is a massive effort to rehabilitate the road infrastructure in the state of California and we were competing against lots of other organizations, so that slowed down the hiring process,” Becnel said.
Then there was the October Sulphur fire, which Becnel said necessitated taking some of the road crew and using them on fire-related work.
Becnel said those workers are limited to 960 hours per year and the Sulphur fire caused them to use up their hours much faster because they were manning barricades and involved in other emergency work.
During the process, Public Works Superintendent Mike Baker determined that the temporary workers are very qualified and eligible to be hired full-time, Becnel said.
“We don't want to lose them to another jurisdiction,” which Becnel said might happen if the city waited another month.
Given the recruitments for road workers happening in California, “When you have an opportunity, you need to seize it,” Becnel said.
The staffers’ assigned range of maintenance worker would be determined by City Manager Greg Folsom in consultation with Public Works Director Doug Herren, Becnel said.
Becnel said the financial impact would range from $192,000 per year for wages plus benefits for four basic maintenance worker positions, up to $212,000 per year for three maintenance workers and one senior maintenance worker.
“Measure V is well funded at this point,” said Becnel, and the city is ready to ramp up the grading of streets.
Herren said he wanted to hire one supervisor and three maintenance workers to run the grading operation that the council wants and is needed.
He said he wanted to keep Public Works and parks staff separate. The city has two full-time and three temporary staff for parks, and it requires a minimum of five staff to keep the parks maintained.
Vice Mayor Phil Harris said his biggest concern is that the staff will be working on road renovation on a daily basis.
“What I would personally like to see is a constant commitment to the roads,” Harris said.
“That’s the goal,” Herren responded.
During the meeting Herren told council members that the city’s grading operation is year-round, with the height of the grading season from June through October. “We're going to hit it the hardest in that timeframe.”
Councilman Russ Perdock said he was looking forward to when the city might be able to increase the road crew staffing level more, noting that the staff is doing good work.
Mayor Bruno Sabatier said he had been concerned that five staffers wasn’t enough during a Measure V review several months ago.
He said the costs of the entire road crew is still less than the $500,000 which it would have cost the city to contract out for grading, with those staffers doing more than just grading. They're also cutting trees and clearing culverts to prevent flooding.
“I think that we're going to see some great changes,” Sabatier said.
Harris moved to approve the request, with Perdock seconding and the council voting 5-0.
In other council action on Thursday, Sabatier presented certificates of appreciation to Christmas parade volunteers, the council approved the mayoral appointments for the new year and appointed Perdock as the voting delegate and Councilman Joyce Overton as alternate for to the League of California Cities Redwood Empire Division.
The council also received an update from Folsom on what he said has proved to be busy weeks at the start of the new year.
In that time he’s met with county, state and federal officials regarding fire recovery, and noted that Gov. Brown’s new budget, released on Wednesday, includes some backfill for lost property taxes due to the Sulphur fire.
“That's not a huge dollar amount for us, thank goodness,” he said.
The bigger issues are infrastructure and damage to the roads, with Folsom pointing out that potholes have grown exponentially on roads in the fire area including Davis, Lakeshore, San Joaquin and Arrowhead. “That’s really where our focus is.”
Folsom said Pacific Gas and Electric has donated a generator for the community center and Sulphur fire debris removal is at 90 percent.
He said city staff met with State Parks officials on Wednesday about a grant for the Austin Park Interpretive Trail, and new Clearlake Police Officer Cali Batz was sworn in on Tuesday.
City Attorney Ryan Jones said there was no reportable action from a closed session discussion on a potential case of litigation.
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