Lack of applicants impacting Elizabethton’s Street & Sanitation Department
Published 3:50 pm Thursday, November 17, 2022
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Photo by Ivan Sanders Elizabethton City Human Resources director Angie Lyons and Street & Sanitation director Danny Hilbert address a workshop dealing with staffing issues in the Street & Sanitation Department.
Photo by Ivan Sanders Jeff Marlowe with the Street & Sanitation Department discusses the manpower issue with the Elizabethton City Council on Monday during a workshop at the Elizabethton Electric System conference room.
Photo by Ivan Sanders Preston Cobb, Finance Director for the City of Elizabethton, discusses the financial impact of raising the pay scale for heavy-duty operators in the Street & Sanitation Department.
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BY IVAN SANDERS
CITY OF ELIZABETHTON PUBLIC RELATIONS
Members of the Elizabethton Street & Sanitation, Finance, and Human Resources departments, along with the Elizabethton City Council, met in a workshop setting at the Elizabethton Electric System on Monday, Nov. 14, to discuss proposed options for operational and personnel changes in the Street and Sanitation Department.
The workshop was necessitated by the issue of employee recruitment and retainment within the city’s sanitation department and how the issue could impact city residents in services provided by the department should a solution not be identified.
According to Elizabethton Street & Sanitation Department Director Danny Hilbert, applications for open positions within the department are very low, noting that one position had been advertised since July 2021 without any qualified applicant responding for the position.
Another issue is a loss of employees to other employers once they are trained on the job as salaries for Heavy Equipment Operators (HEO) and Light Equipment Operators (LEO) have fallen significantly behind the market value.
Hilbert further stated that something will have to give, as not only is the issue impacting his department currently, but those other city departments will be facing the same critical issue in the future due to the challenging labor market.
If the issue isn’t addressed soon, some services that the city offers to their residents could be reduced to the lack of manpower.
Hilbert, along with Human Resources Director Angie Lyons and Finance Director Preston Cobb, presented to the Council a proposed salary change for the HEO position to even the playing field and entice more applicants to apply for the positions available.
The proposed targeted increase would move that rate to $17.24 per hour or an annual salary of $35,859.20.
Council will be considering a rate increase from $13 to $15 for residential pickup and an increase for commercial pickup from $25 to $30 to offset the salary increase.
Also, the City is in the process of purchasing a new automated residential garbage truck that will allow one employee to pick up residential trash, which is scheduled to arrive in 2024. During the meeting, it was also proposed to purchase an additional truck in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
The City Council will be reviewing the proposal to increase HEO’s salary, increase the rate for trash pickup services, and the purchase of the automated residential garbage truck at their December 8 Elizabethton City Council meeting.
