Utilities Department moves ahead without a leader

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

As the dust begins to settle over a hiring controversy in the Key West Utilities Department that led to the ouster of City Manager Bob Vitas, business in one of the most active city agencies is continuing fairly steadily.

There are no imminent plans to replace former Utilities Manager Jay Gewin, who resigned effective July 3, according to Interim City Manager Jim Scholl. And there is no move to hire a temporary contract employee to take over the department, as was the plan by Vitas and former Assistant City Manager David Fernandez that led to Vitas’ departure and Fernandez being forced to go ahead with his planned retirement, also on July 3.

Scholl said he’ll hire a replacement for Gewin once the new fiscal year 2015 budget is finalized, which will take place in September. Until then, it is unclear how much funding will be available to hire a new department head.

“We have enough oversight now between myself and the assistant city manager [Sarah Spurlock},” said Scholl, “to make sure we’re not creating any problems over there. And [Solid Waste Coordinator] Will Thompson and [Utilities Collection Manager] Mike Turner are more than capable of keeping that function going.”

The Utilities Department oversees the city’s wastewater, storm water and solid waste services, including management of the city’s trash removal contract with Waste Management. Turner just finished finalizing a trash collection rate model for city commissioners to consider. With the signing of a new, seven-year solid waste contract with Waste Management, a priority was to set new rates to offset the increase in the contract cost.

Turner said he worked with Gewin on the rate model before Gewin left on July 3.

“I’m trying to handle that on the rate side. There are some other people working on projects,” he said, about how Utilities Department staff is working without a department head. “We’re kind of splitting the duties a little bit here and there.”

One decision Scholl will have to make before hiring a replacement for Gewin is how the position will be classified. Gewin was a manager, making $61,000 a year. However, Vitas decided to elevate the position to director for Fernandez, who would have made $113,000 a year for five years.

The issue of whether some city departments including Utilities should be helmed by a higher level administrator is one Scholl is planning to tackle once the FY 2015 budget is finalized.

“We’re going to have discussions on that. We want to have the right people for the right slots. We’ll be talking to our senior managers to get input on that,” Scholl said.

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