Engineering Technician Additional Position RequestCopyrighted
May 16, 2022
City of Dubuque
City Council Meeting
Consent Items # 017.
ITEM TITLE: Engineering Technician Additional Position Request
SUMMARY: City Manager recommending creation of an additional full-
time Engineering Technician position to save money and help meet the
demands of the engineering department's growing project list by
reducing the need to hire consultants for design and inspection services.
SUGGESTED Suggested Disposition: Receive and File; Approve
DISPOSITION:
ATTACHMENTS:
Description
Engineering Technician Additional Position Request-
MVM Memo
Staff Memo
Type
City Manager Memo
Staff Memo
THE C
DUj!BQTE
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Engineering Technician Additional Position Request
DATE: May 12, 2022
Dubuque
WAWca 914
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2007-2012.2013
2017*2019
City Engineer Gus Psihoyos is recommending creation of an additional full-time
Engineering Technician position to save money and help meet the demands of the
engineering department's growing project list by reducing the need to hire consultants
for design and inspection services.
I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
Mic ael C. Van Milligen
MCVM:sv
Attachment
cc: Crenna Brumwell, City Attorney
Cori Burbach, Assistant City Manager
Shelley Stickfort, Human Resources Director
Jennifer Larson, Finance and Budget Director
Gus Psihoyos, City Engineer
Dubuque
THE CITY OF
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Masterpiece on the Mississippi
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2017*2019
TO: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: Gus Psihoyos, City Engineer
DATE: May 10, 2022
RE: Engineering Technician Additional Position Request
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this memo is to request permission to create an additional non-exempt
(hourly), full-time (1.0 FTE) Engineering Technician position to save money and help
meet the demands of our department's growing project list by reducing the need to hire
consultants for design and inspection services.
BACKGROUND
Engineering recently advertised and filled an existing Engineering Technician position
and had more than one qualified applicant so that offers us some hope on our ability to
fill this position
Some of the diverse job duties assigned to department Engineering Technicians are as
follows:
• Assist with the design, construction management, inspection, and materials
testing of all types of infrastructure projects including: roadway and public utility
projects, sidewalks, driveways, curbs, neighborhood subdivisions, industrial
parks, brownfield redevelopment sites, parks, fiber optic networks, traffic signals,
city buildings, detention basins, storm sewers, sanitary sewers, storm and
sanitary pump stations, flood levee systems, and parking structures to determine
if they meet applicable plans, specifications, or standards.
• Review technical documents and reports.
• Keep detailed records and photo document construction activities.
• Create design drawings (CADD) and create as -built record drawings for
completed projects.
• Use the city's GIS system to create all types of maps.
• Inspection of projects to ensure construction work is in compliance with the
contract drawings and specifications.
• Prepare specifications, calculate material quantity estimates, and construction
cost estimates for projects.
• Collaborate with project team and contractor personnel to resolve design or
construction issues.
• Assist with office and field surveying activities.
• Assist property records researching and mapping activities.
• Fly the department drone for photo documentation of projects, create 3-
dimensional ground topography maps, and as -built records.
• Utilize GIS to research and update infrastructure records.
• Support 24-hour/365 day per year Iowa One Call program operations to locate
existing, city -owned, underground utilities.
• Perform construction materials laboratory and field tests of aggregates, asphalt
paving materials, Portland cement concrete, soils and other related materials.
• Respond to inquiries from the public, developers, engineers, surveyors, other
City departments and outside agencies.
• Issue work in right of way and stormwater related permits.
• Research and prepare revocable and irrevocable licenses, city standard polices,
and ordinance updates.
• Assist with review and coordination of temporary traffic control plans and road
closures.
• Play a key role coordinating emergency infrastructure repair work.
• Respond to internal and external customer questions and service requests.
• Help coordinating outreach to the public during construction projects.
DISCUSSION
Currently the Engineering Department is hiring consultants to perform construction
inspection services due to the number of projects under contract and future projects.
Local engineering firms are charging $125 to $150/hour for surveying related services
and $95 to $132/hour for construction inspection related services (includes overhead
multiplier for insurance, direct costs, and indirect costs). These rates are up to two to four
times the hourly rate of an Engineering Technician. There are approximately fifty-seven
design and inspection projects currently contracted out to consultants and approximately
nineteen projects that could be completed in house if staffing was available.
One of the examples is the Wilbricht Lane Detention Basin Project, the additional cost to
design the project by a consultant is $44,000 more than if we designed the project in
house. The $44,000 is approximately less than one half of the annual cost of an
Engineering Technician. The design was a three-month project. We are also for the first-
time hiring consultants to inspect private subdivisions.
RECOMMENDATION
Based on the additional project volume our department is experiencing now and for
future projects, I recommend creating an additional non-exempt (hourly), regular, full-
time (1.0 FTE) Engineering Technician position in the Engineering Department. The
position will also be added to the on -call rotation for after hour emergency one call utility
locates.
BUDGET
Engineering currently has 17 on -going capital projects that we could have completely
designed in-house if we had available staff to do so. Instead, we've had to outsource
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the preponderance of the design and construction administration work to private
consultants. Additionally, there are another 30+ active projects that are being outsource
to consultant engineers by our department that we could have partially completed in-
house if we had staff available to do so.
One FTE accounts for 2,088 working hours in a year. The total cost of this requested
position is $84,859.60 per year or $40.64/hour including wages & benefits. When
equivalent work is outsourced to a private engineering consultant the city is charged
between $95/hour and $132/hour ($113/hr. average). For every hour of work our
department can insource it equates to approximately a 64% savings. For just the 17
highlighted projects on the attached pages we estimate that $262,000 of those
consultants' fees could have been avoided if there was an Engineering Technician
available to work on those projects. The $262,000 in outsourced costs equates to three
full years of work for this new Engineering Technician.
It is proposed that this position would be funded by recharging to capital projects.
ACTION TO BE TAKEN
I request authorization to create an additional non-exempt (hourly), regular, full-time (1.0
FTE) Engineering Technician position. This position will increase the City's ability to
design and inspect many more of the City private and public projects and to reduce our
dependency on hiring consultants for many of its routine projects.
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