No one disputes Crescent City is a seasonal community, with the major source of income coming from visitors, business and hospitality venues, making their season from April through October. The rainy season starts in November and visitor traffic slows down significantly.
That does not mean Crescent City goes into grizzly bear hibernation. Work needs to be done. It’s still 24/7/365 business as usual.
The City has done a commendable job in the past in hiring part-time positions to keep things working and functional throughout the year. Apparently, this employment dynamic is beginning to falter.
At a Special Meeting of the Crescent City Council, last week, City Manager Eric Wier shared the employment dilemma with councilors and asked for direction to make changes to how and whom to hire. “The City has trouble recruiting and retaining part-time employees. Currently the City has five part-time positions in Public Works and one position in the City Finance Department.” Wier expressed his frustration in recruiting (and retaining) these positions multiple times, unsuccessfully.
The City Manager continued, “In the past, we’ve been able to fill these positions; however, given the current job market and with these positions not receiving health benefits and retirement full-time City positions receive, the City is not competitive with the private sector on wages alone.”
The vacant part-time Public Works positions are mostly to assist with the maintenance of City parks. Without having sufficient human resources, the City has been compelled to pull employees from other departments to provide additional resources in the parks.
The chronic vacancy in the Finance Department is in public utilities, specifically the Water and Sewer Dept. Wier states four attempts to recruit this position have failed to retain this assistance.
The Council also supported to change the title of Information System Administrator to information Technology Manager and move Economic Development under Administration (City Manager).
Councilors will decide to consolidate three part-time Public Works positions to one full-time (with benefits) position.
Will these interventions help? Unknown. Hiring has become a very real problem, not just for the City, but across the County, State and even the USA. Filling jobs is not easy. Law Enforcement continues to suffer recruitment problems
The City Council will address other recommended consolidation options at its Monday, Sept. 16th meeting.
The Council meets at the Flynn Center at 6pm.