Gold Hill to weigh public works restructuring

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GOLD HILL — City officials will discuss whether to restructure the city public works department to make it more efficient during a long-awaited workshop Tuesday.

The workshop will begin at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 420 Sixth Ave.

Public works has been a topic of frequent discussion among City Council members in recent months, ranging from plant operations and parks maintenance to whether sewer and water rates are covering the costs of providing service.

Most of the issues were put on hold until the hiring of Elise Smurzynski in November as the new city manager.

Smurzynski said Tuesday’s session should get her “up to speed” on past issues and help the council prioritize concerns.

Councilwoman Christine Alford said she felt the city’s focus should be ensuring the public works department is run as efficiently as possible.

Prior to Smurzynski’s arrival, city officials voted to contract sports park maintenance with an outside agency after finding the park in poor condition. Rate increases were discussed a handful of times and, more recently, several closed sessions took place to review personnel issues related to public works.

Alford said, first and foremost, she would address the city’s quickly dwindling water and sewer fund reserves and review job descriptions and qualifications of employees.

“We want the most money available from rates collected to fund our daily operations,” she said.

Alford said a rate increase is off the table for now.

“We’re not looking at a rate increase yet. We’re looking at a belt-tightening,” she said.

“First things first, we’re going to evaluate employees — what they’re doing and how it relates to the operation of the plants.”

In the long term, Alford said, needed improvements would likely come from grant or loan dollars, not water bill revenues.

Eligibility for funding offered to low-income communities, she noted, could depend on 2010 Census tallies in coming months.

“We need to evaluate our capital improvement plan and funding options, but we’re on stall for large projects until after the Census comes in. I would hate to indebt the city further only to find out we were actually eligible for lottery funds,” she noted.

“But the main step right now is to make sure the money being collected for water and sewer is, every penny of it, going to those two plants and that they’re being run the way they’re supposed to be.”

Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at buffypollock@juno.com.

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