City departments want new positions, upgrades

Published 5:32 pm Friday, April 28, 2017

Washington’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2017-2018 includes requests to add new positions to the city’s workforce, bring back a former position and add a marketing and promotions line item to the budget to promote Festival Park and the Municipal Pier as wedding venues in the city.

The City Council will review the requests during its upcoming budget work sessions, making a final decision on them when it adopts the 2017-2018 budget later this year.

Brown Library wants to add a full-time circulation supervisor at a cost of $45,400. The library proposes to convert one part-time position and do away with two 16-hour part-time positions, resulting in eliminating three part-time positions for one full-time position, according to a city document. The reorganization would result in a savings of $17,919, with the total cost of the service expansion at $27,481, according to the document.

Currently, the circulation supervisor’s position is being filled by the library’s program director. “We are falling short on the programming and outreach we should be doing in the community. There is also not enough tine to run the circulation desk correctly,” reads the request for the full-time circulation supervisor. “There needs to be training, organization, and library standards need to be followed. Having on person try and perform two full-time (roles) is not realistic.”

The equipment-services division of the Public Works Department wants to add an equipment mechanic II position to the workforce and upgrade the fleet-maintenance supervisor to pay grade 22 with a 5-percent increase in pay. The division said the request is justified because the new position would perform specialized mechanical work and the fleet-maintenance supervisor performs highly skilled diagnostic and technical work.

Making those changes would cost $48,237, according to the request document. That cost would be offset by eliminating the supervisor’s position (salary at $58,057) at the cemetery division, according to the document.

The recreation arm of the Community and Cultural Resources wants to re-establish the lead recreation maintenance worker by promoting an employee at pay grade 10 to pay grade 12 at the minimum salary in that grade. In the event the supervisor of the recreation maintenance department is on vacation or not working for various reasons, there is no one in charge of the department, according to a city document. Making that change would cost $3,600.

“There is no one charged with assigning duties, explaining duties, or making sure staff is completing tasks correctly. This is not a request for a new position, however establishing a position that used to exist,” reads the document.

Adding the weddings marketing and promotions line item to the budget would result in operational costs of $2,000, which would be offset by at least $2,000 in increased revenues from people booking Festival Park or the Municipal Pier for weddings, according to a city document from the recreation arm of the Community and Cultural Resources.

“The creation of the Inner Banks Wedding Association has provided staff with the opportunity to attend bridal shows and advertise with other local vendors to attract weddings to our venues,” reads the document.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

email author More by Mike