Department reorganization approved

MAT-SU -- More growth means more waste and, with more than 10 permanent and several temporary employees and a budget of nearly $2.5 million, the borough's solid waste operations have outgrown their current home within the Mat-Su Borough's Public Works Department.

To address the difficulties of managing a busy department within the Operation and Maintenance division of Public Works, borough officials presented the borough assembly with a plan to create a separate division for solid waste-related activities.

According to information from Public Works Director Jim Swing, the OM division is already responsible for road maintenance, facility maintenance, vehicle maintenance and custodial duties, as well as operation of the Garden Terrace water system and the Talkeetna sewer and water system. Nearly 30 permanent positions are held within the OM division, along with about 15 seasonal summer employees. Creating a special division for solid waste will cut those numbers down to 17 permanent employees and seven temporary positions, resulting in easier management of the division.

Most assembly members agreed that splitting the division made sense, but some balked at a potential $12,000 increase in salary for the solid waste supervisor.

"I have no problem with creating a separate division, but I do have a problem with raising the pay to $60- to $65,000," assembly member Jim Colver said. "I think we need to focus on what it's costing us out there. I don't think we're in a position, with our budgetary circumstances, to [increase salaries]."

Swing explained that, in creating a separate division, the current solid waste supervisor position would be changed to a division manager position. That change, he explained, reclassifies the position on the borough's step and range pay scale and automatically sets the minimum pay for that position at $58,000. The high end of that scale, Swing said, is $77,000. The $65,000 Swing requested for budgetary purposes would provide some options when it comes to hiring someone to fill the position.

"It's just an estimate," Swing said. "We don't even know who we're putting in there."

Colver amended the motion to split the division by limiting the salary to $58,000, but the amendment ultimately failed, with his lone support.

On the other side of the table, assembly member Kelly Lankford Ladere wondered if the $12,000 requested to fund the new position was enough.

"I have a hard time believing it would just be $12,000," Ladere said. "We have lots going on in what would be a new division -- it seems to me, in the creation of this division, there would be more expenses than just $12,000."

Assembly member Talis Colberg said he supported Swing's request, as the director had a history of meticulous budgeting.

"I seem to recall, in your budget last year, your department had the least increase," Colberg said. "You, more than any other department, have been conservative and try to keep everything in line."

Swing said instituting dumping fees went a long way in helping the department balance its costs.

"Since we started the fee system in 1993, we have tried to get the revenues and expenditures balanced," Swing said. "The last couple of years, we've managed to come very close to doing that. We've been very conservative when it comes to budgeting."

When it came to a vote, the assembly approved the departmental reorganization, with assembly members Colver and Ladere in opposition.