HomeMy WebLinkAboutRe. Hiring a part-time assistant for Brent Cross 5.18.2009.PDF-.>7 'dr*
Village of Cayuga Heights Board Meeting
Trustee Privilege of the Floor Item, May 18, 2009
Beatrice Szekely
Re: hiring a part-time assistant for Brent Cross:
Brent has six major responsibilities as our Superintendent for Public Works:
Village Engineer (infrastructure: roads, water and sewers, )
Building Commissioner (multiple inspections and permits)
Fire Marshall (also rounds of inspections)
Zorung Officer
Storm Water Management (most recent)
DPW Supervisor of the Village workforce, under Teamsters contract
This multiplicity of responsibilities is necessary because of the small size of the Village.
I initiated c.onversation with Brent last week, in my role as chair of the DPW committee,
with encouragement from committee member Trustee Reisman, about his workload.
We may be a relatively small village but each of his jobs requires technical training, skill
and many hours of work in and outside his inadequate office space.
He is accountable to residents for the physical appearance and function of all aspects of
Village infrastructure. Many people are frustrated when they cannot reach him easily by
phone or find him in his office on a drop in basis, while he is in meetings, at job sites, at
the garage or driving. Having worked with him since October, it's clear to me that he
needs assistance.
We look to the renovation of Marcham Ha1l, to the installation of bus shelters, to
resolving the signage problems, to the creation of a planning board that we hope will
occasion a review of Village ordnances and laws, all of which will add to his work
responsibilities. Some of these items are, of course, one-offprojects, but there are always
more. For example, the considerable amounts of time Brent was called upon to devote to
the decision-making to discontinue taking gas well drilling wastewater at the WWTP, and
the ongoing effort in liaising for the head works analysis by Stearns and Wheler. Human
resource management, working closely with Jeff Frisbie as Assistant Superintendent for
Public Works, is another aspect of Brent's work that can be very demanding.
I've looked over Brent's job description as it stands, the original from his hire and one
update, and taken the liberty of asking him to review it and come up with a tentative list
of duties an assistant technician might take on, including permitting and code inspections.
Trustees are not empowered to supervise Village staff; let me point out that I am very
clear on that point; he reports to the Mayor for supervision. But as Chair of the DPW
committee I have gained an appreciation for what Brent is charged with doing in his
professional engineering position and want to put before you my opinion that he needs an
assistant.
Where to put such a person is an obvious question pending creation of additional work
space through renovation of Marcham hall. But there are options to be discussed on a
temporary basis.