09-02-25 City Council Meeting Packet

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30 CITY OF LAKE ELMO, MN should also be stressed that these potential future positions (i.e., those in years beyond the three operator positions contained in this recommendation) are not necessarily operator positions. It is likely that additional administrative or managerial positions will be needed as the Department grows in the future. To give a sense of where this recommendation of adding two FTEs in 2025 and one FTE in 2026 puts Lake Elmo in relation to its regional peers, Figure 18 shows that the recommended staffing increases generally grows staff levels at the rate one would expect based on regional patterns. Additional staffing growth in future years should be based on the need to maintain future levels of service, which may change based on infrastructure needs (e.g., aging infrastructure requiring additional repair or replacement activities, new assets with more complicated operations, etc.) or changing community expectations (e.g., more aggressive plowing schedules, additional trail maintenance, etc.). Assuming levels of service remain constant despite a growing community, then population is the best proxy for growth in infrastructure and thus staffing needs. As mentioned in the prior paragraph, the projected growth in population contained in Figure 18 would indicate one additional FTE approximately once every two years. Note that in the figure below, the staffing level indicated by the average regional staffing rate grows by seven FTE in 12 years. Figure 18: Projected PW FTEs Assuming the Staffing Rate of Regional Peers Recommendation 5: Designate up to six Operators as Utility Specialists and limit on-call rotations to the Utility Specialists Currently, Public Works Operators are not differentiated by the types of work that they do. There are not “water operators” or “sewer operators” or “streets operators”. Each week, however, one Operator is designated to be on call. This on-call Operator is responsible for checking and resolving any alarms within the water and sewer systems, particularly after-hours and weekends. The on-call Operator is also responsible for performing daily rounds on the utility systems. The on-call responsibility rotates weekly amongst all Operators. With a complement of eight - 5 10 15 20 25 - 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 2034 2035 Projected FTEsProjected PopulationProjected PW FTEs versus the Staffing Rate of Regional Peers Projected Lake Elmo Population PW FTEs Assuming the Regional PW Staffing Rate Current and Recommended Lake Elmo PW Staffing