East Central Iowa News

The Newton City Council is considering changes to the City staff structure, adding a few positions in the hope of easing work loads for some employees and streamlining efficiency.

“Every department, every division, they're helping out everyone,” Joe Grife, director of Public Works, said in the Feb. 20 council meeting. “You know, any time there's some work in the right-of-way out there, we should have someone on staff making sure it's being done correctly, following up with them. So there's a lot going on, a lot of projects we have starting up and it's going to take all summer, all staff, all-hands-on-deck kind of a situation.”

Newton is weighing a proposal that would replace its civil engineering tech position with a lower-level position (CET III to CET I) and add one position each in the engineering, public works and operations, water distribution, police and fire departments.

A resident asked if that was the best use of money as a few residents had spoken earlier in the meeting about the increase in taxes, asking the City to find ways to make cuts so they could keep Newton affordable to property owners. The city council assured the resident that the change was already budgeted for and made from changes in other areas.

Councilmember Vicki Wade discussed the background of the decision, saying that she had asked the same questions as the resident. She said that she had spoken to the departments about the new positions and what their purpose was, and whether they were going to solve existing problems in the city.

The positions for water distribution and public works would allow one worker to go out and do the collections and readings for the entire city for all utilities, which would be more efficient and save money in the end, while still providing the same level of service; Wade said. The two positions would be totally funded by the road-use taxes, stormwater utility enterprise funds, and water works enterprise funds, taking no money out of the City’s general fund.

The additional position with the police department will be a code enforcement officer who will focus on ordinances pertaining to dogs and animal code, junk in yards around the city, and other quality-of-life issues.

The additional position for the fire department is for a fire prevention specialist. This would help ease the duties of several other positions that absorbed the work of their former fire marshal who retired a few years ago with no replacement appointed.