PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County Public Works Director Monte Reinders said the divisions need more staffing and are facing an unsustainable workload.
Reinders presented his department’s work plan for this year at the Board of County Commissioners meeting on Monday.
Public works contains six divisions with a total budget of about $40 million , Reinders said. The department employs 78.26 full-time employees between Solid Waste, the Port Hadlock Sewer project, Parks and Recreation, County Roads, the Fleets program and finances.
The county roads program has been struggling, even after recently forming a transportation benefit district, likely to bring in $1.2 million in annual revenue, Reinders said.
Separately, a number of people provided public comment Monday seeking a remedy to Hoh Road, which washed out in December. The county doesn’t have the money for the estimated $600,000 repair. The south shore road at Lake Quinault also is in need of a $600,000 repair.
“I like to call it the incredible shrinking department,” Reinders said.
Reinders gave a brief history of the losses in funding faced by the county roads program.
Between 1998 and 2022, the department has reduced staffing by 18 percent, Reinders said.
Between 2010 and 2013, roads lost $900,000 annually in federal funding, which moved from roads funding through Secure Rural School dollars to the county’s general fund through Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) dollars, Reinders said.
Road dollars also have seen massive increases in diversions to fund other parts of the county budget, increasing at times from $250,000 to $720,000 per year, Reinders said.
“Since (County Administrator) Mark McCauley’s been here, that’s come back down to $520,000 per year from the $720,000 mark, so that’s helpful,” Reinders said.
Reinders said the average age of engineers in public works is 64. As engineers retire, they won’t necessarily be backfilled. There are six engineers overseeing roads project management currently, he said.
“Asking the department of six people to do all of this work is starting to feel a little bit unsustainable to me,” Reinders said. “We have just a massive workload, and I think people might think there’s some massive government agency and group there to do all that. It’s not. So this level of work is not sustainable with the staffing that we have. We’re going to have to see where that takes us, but it probably looks like a lot less happening and getting done.”
County roads’ 2025 budget is about $14.5 million , according to Reinders’ slide presentation.
Solid Waste’s budget is $5.1 million. The division employs 12.93 full-time employees.
The Port Hadlock Sewer is scheduled to start its first phase in July. The project will receive more than $15.5 million in funding this year.
“It’s the largest, most complicated project the county’s ever done, most expensive,” Reinders said. “We’re supposed to start this facility up in mid-25, working with the PUD. I know they’re advertising and interviewing wastewater treatment plant operators. Until there is one, it’s going to be a little hard to start it up, and actually we need more than one. You have to have backup. It’s all spelled out in the Department of Ecology permit.”
Reinders said there’s a ton of work to do before a mid-2025 opening.
Some of the work is funded by an Environment Protection Agency grant.
“If Elon doesn’t take it back,” read a parenthetical in Reinders’ slideshow.
Commissioner Heidi Eisenhour asked Reinders if he knew anything about the funding being under threat.
“Well, I mean, does anyone know?” Reinders said. “We haven’t specifically heard about this grant. I know Friday a bunch of EPA people were fired, so I don’t know what Monday looks like. It’s only 10:30 a.m.”
Midway through 2024, fleets merged into the public works department, then the fleets manager resigned, Reinders said.
“He liked being a part of public works, but he liked better working in Indiana where he was from,” Reinders said. “So that’s where he went back to.”
Since the fleets manager left, the management workload has fallen to Reinders, he said.
The fleets program oversees 270 pieces of equipment and vehicles, much of it complex, all of it computerized, Reinders said.
“We have three mechanics and a foreman,” Reinders said. “You’re not born knowing how to work on something like that chip spreader (shown on a presentation slide). You don’t learn that doing it once a year. We do send stuff out to other companies to work on. It’s very expensive. All this computerized stuff you have to have, you know, sophisticated diagnostic equipment for. You can’t even diagnose CAD (computer-aided design) equipment. They have to do it for you.”
To illustrate the effect of inflation, Reinders showed a photograph of a defunct street sweeper, 14 years into its 10-year life expectancy.
“It cost $201,000 when it was bought in 2011,” Reinders said. “Its replacement is $460,000.”
Aside from needing to reduce or consolidate staff positions, some positions are sitting open without receiving any qualified candidates, Reinders said. An engineer position has been open for more than two years, he added.
Some of things that were previously considered draws for government employment, like good benefit packages, are now offered more broadly in the private sector, and salaries are better, Reinders said.
“We’re the second oldest median age county in the country,” Reinders said. “Our median home price is $650,000, which is currently the fifth highest in Washington state, although it’s ranged from the third to the fifth. So it’s not exactly an employer’s market, which is depressing when you’re trying to run a department. Where does a truck driver making $25 an hour live when a house costs $650,000?”
Current staff and funding outlooks are likely to lead to getting less done, Reinders said.
“You can dream about having a Ferrari and how awesome it would be and how fast you can drive with that,” Reinders said. “When your budget is a Geo Metro, don’t drive the Geo Metro like a Ferrari because the wheels are just going to fall off and it won’t get you anywhere.”
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
