CALIFORNIA—The city of California hosted aboard of alderman meetingWednesday night, during which members discussed theretention and recruitmentof city employees.
During the meeting, severalcity utility employersdiscussed how to best compete withother utility companiesin keeping workers.
Several of thecity’s utility departmentsare currently short of several employees.
To combat this,city utilitiesweighed up a few possible solutions – including increasing benefits, allowing employees to consume medical marijuana, and reducing requirements for certain positions.
But by far, the biggest issue brought forward was pay.
“When you talk about retention, it’s dollars an hour. I mean, that’s what it’s going to take, ” said a utility worker who worked for the city.
Some of the aldermen pushed back on the request.
Ward 1 Alderman Steve Hickmanquestioned how the city would make up the revenue.
“We can’t keep giving more without taking any revenue, I see us getting in real trouble if we do this.”
Another city utility worker pointed out the urgency to get more workers prior to the winter as they need several snowplow operators.
The California Board of Aldermanplans to address thedepartment’s requestat its first meeting in November.