To: Board of Directors, Sonoma County Water Agency
Department or Agency Name(s): Sonoma County Water Agency
Staff Name and Phone Number: Michael Thompson 521-1863 Susanne Oliver 524-1155
Vote Requirement: 4/5th
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Sonoma Water Allocations Request
End
Recommended Action:
Recommended action
A) Adopt a resolution effective December 10, 2019 to add: one (1) full-time equivalent Technical Writing Specialist to the Sonoma County Water Agency Engineering and Resources Planning Section; one (1) full-time equivalent Water Agency Environmental Compliance Technician to the Industrial Waste Section to reduce reliance on extra help resources; and one (1) full-time equivalent Administrative Services Officer I to the Administrative Services Section to develop and manage project management administration across all Sonoma County Water Agency divisions.
B) Adopt a resolution authorizing adjustments to the Board Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2019-2020 for the Sonoma County Water Agency General Fund for $168,174 for three full time equivalent allocations. The cost of the allocations will be offset by decreased overtime and extra help staffing costs. (4/5th Vote Required)
C) Approve a hiring freeze exemption for a 1.0 FTE Water Agency Deputy Chief Engineer position in the Sonoma County Water Agency Engineering and Resource Planning Division.
end
Executive Summary:
Prompted by increased demand for services, Sonoma Water has completed a review of staffing needs in the Engineering Division, Administrative Division, and Environmental Compliance Section and is requesting the addition of three allocations to its staffing plan. Part of this review included careful analysis of the use of extra help resources. Where it is determined the need is a long-term one, Sonoma Water made every effort to replace extra help positions with permanent staff. The full-time equivalent Technical Writing Specialist and full-time equivalent Sonoma Water Environmental Compliance Technician positions will relieve overtime of existing staff and the need to maintain extra help resources to meet long-term obligations.
Sonoma Water also identified a long-term need in the area of project management. Currently all project management activities for Sonoma Water are conducted by individual engineers who work on assigned projects until completion. This model does not allow for reliable and consistent integration of all stakeholders and resources into the planning, scoping, budgeting and decision making process of complex project management. The current model also does not offer the efficiencies of scale that can be achieved with the use of a comprehensive project management system. A Lead Project Manager will have ongoing responsibility for the integration of all project management activities across the organization with a specific focus on ensuring collaboration between all stakeholders to appropriately prioritize projects, manage budgets and resources, and resolve issues involving project scope and timing.
Sonoma Water requests to add one full-time equivalent Administrative Services Officer I under a working title of Sonoma Water Lead Project Manager to implement, administer, and manage a comprehensive organization-wide project management system, and then on an ongoing basis prioritize, organize and lead all project management activities across Sonoma Water divisions.
The 1.0 FTE Water Agency Deputy Chief Engineer was frozen as part of a countywide hiring freeze approved by the Board of Directors on December 11, 2018, which called for a hiring freeze on all positions not currently under recruitment and vacant for longer than nine months. The Water Agency Deputy Chief Engineer is a critical position at Sonoma Water as it is expected during periods of absence to act for the Water Agency Chief Engineer, the position responsible for all engineering activities at Sonoma Water and required by the Sonoma County Water Agency enabling legislation. Therefore Sonoma Water recommends that the Board grant a release of the hiring freeze for the Water Agency Deputy Chief Engineer.
County HR has reviewed this request and concurs with the recommendation.
Discussion:
ASO I - Lead Project Manager
Sonoma Water’s mission is to effectively manage water resources in its care for the public’s benefit and the environment through resource and environmental stewardship, technical innovation, and fiscal management. Effective project management is a critical component in achieving this mission. Projects and initiatives typically intersect and span across several lines of Sonoma Water business.
In 2009, Sonoma Water contracted with a consultant to conduct an organizational analysis. One of the recommendations from the analysis was to hire a master project manager to help procure and manage a comprehensive project management system in order to provide master calendaring, shorter project life cycles, reduced cost overruns, fewer change orders, advanced project management technology and better defined process engineering for individual project management. Integrating project work successfully, effectively and efficiently is a complex task which involves all stakeholders and has become increasingly challenging as the organization has grown and taken on more diverse functions and responsibilities.
During Sonoma Water’s 2017 strategic planning process, project management and the goal of establishing a standardized project management process was again identified as a key organizational priority. Sonoma Water recognizes the current gap in its project management process and is eager to commit resources to implement an organization-wide project management system to improve overall organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
Over the past ten years, Sonoma Water has attempted to improve project management skills on an individual basis by training engineers and other staff using best practices. Although this method has been useful toward staff development, it has ultimately not met Sonoma Water’s need for an integrated system that provides overall project management oversight, cost control and resource management. The annual cost of an Administrative Services Officer I to develop and manage project management administration for Sonoma Water will be $185,518. The position’s key duties will include the following:
• Recommend/administer/manage project management software system;
• Oversee and manage administration of multiple projects;
• Foster partnership and collaboration with customers/stakeholders/sponsors;
• Help manage budget and scope;
• Assist with allocating project resources; and
• Create schedule and project timelines.
Sonoma Water recognizes the industry standard is the utilization of a comprehensive integrated project management software system. Further, a dedicated staff person is critical to procure, develop, administer and appropriately manage this system in order to work optimally within the organization. Sonoma Water will return to the Board of Directors in the next 12 to 18 months to seek approval in the event the recommended project management software exceeds the General Manager’s delegated purchasing authority.
Technical Writing Specialist
Sonoma Water’s Technical Writing Unit has utilized 1-2 temporary extra-help positions consistently for the past 7 years in order to keep up with sustained workload to support Sonoma Water with construction project manual development, and agreement and agenda report writing. The unit also has regularly used overtime for the full-time employees in order to keep workflow moving. Upon approval of this request, Sonoma Water intends to eliminate use of one extra help position in the technical writing unit, offsetting its request by $82,186 annually. This represents the average annual cost of one (1) extra help Technical Writing Specialist working the equivalent of 960 hours annually. Sonoma Water anticipates sustained work for the new full time position as evidenced by the consistent technical writing workload for the past several years. The annual net cost of the new Water Agency Technical Writing Specialist is $82,716 (annual total cost of $164,902 less $82,186 extra help offset). The position’s key responsibilities will include the following:
• Develop and administer professional service and funding agreements with consultants and other agencies;
• Compose, edit and finalize agreements and construction project specifications;
• Develop project manuals for construction projects and requests for proposals;
• Assist with the public project bid process;
• Review and edit environmental documents such as environmental impact reports and notices; and
• Assist with other special projects such as emergency response efforts, agency research, and agency response to information requests.
The position will be filled and recruited as soon as it is approved by the Board. Without this position, the business needs described above would not be adequately met and the section will continue utilizing existing staff already committed to other tasks resulting in overtime work or use extra help staffing in order to meet ongoing needs.
Sonoma Water Environmental Compliance Technician
The Industrial Waste section (Section) of the Maintenance Division is responsible for maintaining compliance with state and federal requirements for discharging wastewater into Sonoma Water’s collection system and treatment plants. This is accomplished through permitting, inspection, plan review and wastewater sampling in the Sanitation Districts and Zones under Sonoma Water’s purview. As commercial growth continues in the Airport-Larkfield-Wikiup Sanitation Zone (Zone) and in the southern portion of Sonoma Valley County Sanitation District, the workload and responsibilities of the Industrial Waste section will continue to expand.
The Section has utilized a temporary extra-help position consistently for the past 2 years to keep up with increased compliance responsibilities and to support the Environmental Compliance Inspectors with inspections and user surveys. Since adding an extra help Water Agency Environmental Compliance Technician to the work group in August 2017, the Section has been able to increase inspections and sampling by 30% throughout the zones and districts served. In addition to normal field activities, the Section has increased and improved the site specific flow monitoring requested by the Zone. During 2018, the Section was able to a) increase user surveys in the Zone to better capture lost revenue from outdated user information, and b) meet the demands of the pre-inspection/post repair flow monitoring requirements for the Sonoma Valley Lateral Inspection Program. Inspection staff has been able to focus on this work as a direct result of having an extra help Water Agency Environmental Compliance Technician available to conduct other daily functions. Environmental Compliance staff works closely with Sonoma Water Finance staff to accurately capture revenue opportunities that had been previously missed due to a lack of staffing resources. Since the addition of the extra help technician position, the section has been able to update the format of permitting and applications and make important revisions to the hauled waste program and Pollution Prevention reporting.
The Section continues to expect increased compliance responsibilities. Additional pretreatment requirements, dental amalgum inspections, and probable formal pretreatment requirements for treatment plants will require more staff time to properly accomplish data acquisition and reporting. Having adequate permanent staffing will be critical to meet these changing compliance goals. The new position’s key responsibilities will include the following:
• Assist with permitting, inspections and sampling to ensure compliance with the Sanitation Code;
• Observe and record field conditions and flow meter readings;
• Help prepare wastewater discharge permits and wastewater discharge surveys;
• Collect information for assessing fees from industrial and commercial users;
• Provide administrative support in the preparation and updating of compliance databases and other documentation; and
• Assist with annual pollution prevention reports for MS4 permitting.
Adding one full time Water Agency Environmental Compliance Technician will allow the Section to eliminate current reliance on extra help while providing continued service and maintaining compliance. Eliminating the extra help positon will offset Sonoma Water’s request by $75,724 annually. This amount represents the average annual cost of one extra help Water Agency Environmental Compliance Technician working the equivalent of 960 hours annually. The net annual cost of the new Water Agency Environmental Compliance Technician is $68,113 (annual total cost of $143,837 less the $75,724 extra help offset). Sonoma Water anticipates an ongoing need as evidenced by the increasing workload over the past 2 years. The position will be filled and recruited as soon as it is approved by the Board.
Water Agency Deputy Chief Engineer
The Water Agency Deputy Chief Engineer reports to the Water Agency Chief Engineer and Director of Groundwater who is professionally responsible for all engineering activities at Sonoma Water. For this reason, the Water Agency Chief Engineer position is required by the Sonoma County Water Agency enabling legislation. The Water Agency Deputy Chief Engineer is expected to act on behalf of the Water Agency Chief Engineer during any periods of absence. Therefore, it is both a critical and necessary position at Sonoma Water. During the period of vacancy, the Water Agency Deputy Chief Engineer position has been filled with a temporary promotion. Sonoma Water has been engaged in succession planning activities and is now ready to recruit and fill this critical role. Sonoma Water requests the Board grant a release of the hiring freeze for the Water Agency Deputy Chief Engineer. The 1.0 FTE Water Agency Deputy Chief Engineer position has been included in the adopted 19-20 budget, and in the projected budgets.
Prior Board Actions:
December 11, 2018 - Board approved a countywide hiring freeze for all positions vacant longer than nine months.
June 2019 - Board adopted the Fiscal year 2019/2020 Budget which authorized funding that included this 1.0 FTE Water Agency Deputy Chief Engineer position.
Fiscal Summary
|
Expenditures |
FY 19-20 Adopted |
FY20-21 Projected |
FY 21-22 Projected |
|
Budgeted Expenses |
|
$346,437 |
$356,831 |
|
Additional Appropriation Requested |
$168,174 |
|
|
|
Total Expenditures |
$168,174 |
$346,437 |
$356,831 |
|
Funding Sources |
|
|
|
|
General Fund/WA GF |
$168,174 |
$346,437 |
$356,831 |
|
State/Federal |
|
|
|
|
Fees/Other |
|
|
|
|
Use of Fund Balance |
|
|
|
|
Contingencies |
|
|
|
|
Total Sources |
$168,174 |
$346,437 |
$356,831 |
Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
Salary and benefits are budgeted in the General Fund which is funded through water sales revenue, taxes, and grants. The General Fund is reimbursed by Sonoma Water’s enterprise funds through the overhead rate. Sonoma Water’s cost accounting system allocates labor costs to Sonoma Water projects specific to its enterprise funds.
Adding 3.0 FTE allocations (Administrative Services Officer I, Technical Writing Specialist, and Water Agency Environmental Compliance Technician) represents a total annual increase of $494,257. This is offset by $157,910 which represents the expected annual decrease in extra help staffing costs. Based on this calculation, FY 2019/2020 labor costs are expected to increase by $168,174 (net of $336,347 annually, prorated for 6 months).
With Board approval, FY 2019/2020 appropriations will be budgeted pursuant to the attached budget resolution. For FY 2020/2021 and FY 2021/2022 the net increase for salary and benefits will be $346,437 and $356,831 respectively, assuming a 3% cost-of-living adjustment each year. FY 2020/2021 and FY 2021/2022 appropriations will be budgeted in those fiscal years. The cost of these positions were not factored into Sonoma Water's Fiscal Year 2019/2020 overhead rate due to timing, but will be incorporated into its annual overhead rate in future fiscal years.
In the event the Board takes action approving the salary increase to the Technical Writing Specialist as recommended in the SEIU/SCWA class study, the fully loaded annual increase to the Technical Writing Specialist classification will be $902. Sonoma Water can absorb this increased salary amount within the fiscal year budget.
|
Staffing Impacts: |
|
|
|
|
Position Title (Payroll Classification) |
Monthly Salary Range (A-I Step) |
Additions (Number) |
Deletions (Number) |
|
Administrative Services Officer |
$6824.88 - $8294.56 |
+1 |
0 |
|
Technical Writing Specialist |
$6209.18 - $7548.42 |
+1 |
0 |
|
WA Environmental Compliance Technician |
$6183.09 - $7517.11 |
+1 |
0 |
Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
If approved, this request will increase Sonoma Water’s allocation tables as follows:
Administrative Services Officer I allocations from 3 to 4
Technical Writing Specialist allocations from 7 to 8
Water Agency Environmental Compliance Technician allocations from 0 to 1.
Attachments:
(2) Resolutions
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
None