- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Supervisors discuss recruitment for new Water Resources and Public Works leadership
The decision comes as Scott De Leon, Public Works’ longtime director who also heads Water Resources, is planning to retire June 30.
De Leon became Lake County Water Resources director in 2010, and in May 2011 was appointed by the Board of Supervisors as Public Works director. The two departments since then have been joined and separated numerous times, usually as a result of staffing changes.
De Leon said it will be challenging to recruit an individual to be Public Works director, much less one who also has the experience with water resources issues.
That’s why he is recommending the departments be separated and led by two directors.
At the same time, he suggested keeping the Public Works Department’s administrative division in place to provide clerical and fiscal oversight of both departments.
That administrative division, which De Leon said he created after former Water Resources Director David Cowan left in the summer of 2019, has 13 full-time employees allocated, Assistant County Administrative Officer Steve Carter said during the discussion.
De Leon said that the Public Works administrative division is the strongest it’s been in 25 years, and is a “well-oiled machine” with a succession plan in place. To split it to create two separate departments would be detrimental, he added.
Until late last year, Marina Deligiannis had been the deputy director for Water Resources. De Leon said she handled the day-to-day operations of Water Resources; she also had worked on the Middle Creek Restoration Project.
However, she left to take a job out of county and De Leon said that position will now be “upgraded.”
Human Resources Director Pam Samac said the county could begin recruiting as soon as they have salary guidelines. She said she would work with Carter on that question, adding that they need to create a salary to draw the right kind of candidates.
De Leon urged them not to reduce the salary. “You’re going to have a hard enough time recruiting.”
Lake County Human Resources’ webpages do not list the Water Resources director or its annual salary range, but the Water Resources deputy director has a range of $94,812 to $115,248, while the Public Works director’s annual salary is $140,748 to $171,084.
Public Works and Water Resources together have a large number of projects going at any one time, as De Leon acknowledged.
During the meeting, Lake County News asked if De Leon’s succession planning addressed how to handle key projects in the transition.
In addition to the Middle Creek Restoration Project, among those of special concern Lake County News asked about is the long-running project to stop the hillside collapse that has closed Hill Road East near the Lakeside Heights subdivision almost annually since 2013.
There is also the work to find the best alternative to improving the condition of the Middle Creek and Clover Creek diversion levees near Upper Lake, which the studies to date have shown have the potential to fail due to their current condition, which could lead to catastrophic flooding.
Then there is the countywide pavement rehabilitation plan which De Leon presented to the board in April of 2022, which proposed $84 million in road work over five years. That was later changed to 10 years.
De Leon told the board during the initial 2023-24 budget hearings in June that his department planned to deliver a big initial road project in this fiscal year.
Gas tax will be part of the funding mix, but De Leon said at that time that the board needed to think of sales taxes, bonds and other types of funding options because Public Works doesn’t have a confirmed funding source for the pavement rehabilitation project after the first year. Without additional funding sources, De Leon said it will take more than 10 years to do the work.
In response to Lake County News’ questions about those project continuity issues, Board Chair Bruno Sabatier said it will be a “delicate process” to make sure there is a handoff between leadership.
Sabatier added that the board is responsible for ensuring those projects continue and don’t slip through the cracks.
De Leon said Public Works recently entered into a contract with Coastland Engineering for staff augmentation for the inspection and engineering division.
“I don’t have any intentions of just walking away and leaving things without anyone to handle them and just leaving everyone with a bunch of unfinished projects,” De Leon said. “I plan to assist in any way I can with that transition.”
The board reached consensus to split the departments’ leadership, but not the administrative division, as De Leon suggested, and to have Human Resources quickly begin the recruitment process.
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