PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city is looking to add another leadership position to the public works department.

The Personnel Review Board on Monday supported the creation of a deputy commissioner in the Department of Public Services and Utilities. The full-time position, if approved by the City Council, will have a Grade M-8 pay scale with a yearly salary ranging from $89,247 to $116,021.

This position would assist Commissioner of Public Services and Utilities Ricardo Morales.

"If we think back over my 16 years of being a city councilor, at one point in time, we had a commissioner of public services and a commissioner of public utilities. In some prior administration, we merged those two commissioners together with just one commissioner," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.

"I think if you pulled any member of the City Council, they would tell you that the workload for both commissioners to pull it into one has not really set up our commissioners to be able to be successful with everything that they need to be dealing with on both public services and public utilities as well as keeping up to date with the day to day operations."

Marchetti engaged with a former commissioner shortly after taking office in January and asked for him to offer suggestions about how the department could be run more efficiently.

One of his first questions was "One commissioner or two?"

"As a former commissioner, he quickly answered 'one' but he wanted to do his analysis and review of the department before it came forward. When he was done with his analysis, his report showed that he would stay with one commissioner but highly recommended the position of deputy commissioner. And so the deputy commissioner would report directly to the commissioner and handle much of the day-to-day operations and doing the field work and being on the ground with the staff," the mayor explained.

"I am still not sure whether I agreed with one commissioner or two but how am I going to argue with a former commissioner who's worked the job and has embraced his recommendation."

According to the job description, the position would assist the commissioner in planning, directing, and managing the operations and activities of the Public Services and Utilities Department. This involves overseeing various divisions, ensuring the efficient delivery of public works services, and fostering a collaborative work environment.

Morales explained that he was involved in the review and he realized that changes need to be made to set the department up for success.

"It was immediately impacted by the pandemic, that was in early 2020. We started getting there with the separation of some of the responsibilities with the creation of the business manager position, which essentially is meant to be a human resources and finance side of things into the department. And then the operational side is another crucial aspect of the operations department that formed the two parts of the three main roles that our department plays in the community," he said.

"The third one being the capital, large project vision for the city and that, among the final approval and the other responsibilities that would just fall under the commissioner, under myself in this case, would still be the commissioner's role, distinct from what the operations day to day responsibilities would be for the deputy commissioner."

He believes that this is "crucial" for the efficient operation of the department with more than 100 employees.

"We have 104 employees. We have increased employees in the last four years, five years, since I first started in the department. We run currently almost $30 million worth of operating work, most of it different from other departments in the large similar scale. Most of it is on the expenses side, rather than the human resources side," Morales said.

"We currently have $12 million worth of capital projects. We have a large capital project looming in the horizon with some upgrades to the water treatment plants."

All of these things were considered in the department review, he added, and having a deputy commissioner will ensure a balanced workload and improve service and fiscal responsibility.

"Given the information and the upgrade and what this would provide to the city in terms of the support and services I would I would support this," Board member Brian House said.

The panel also voted to upgrade the fire chief and city solicitor positions.

The fire chief's salary would be raised from a Grade M-11 salary ranging from $118,785 to $154,421 annually to a Grade M-12 salary ranging from $137,638 to $178,930 annually. The police chief is expected to make about $180,000 annually after a six-month review occurring later this year.

"As I have been transitioning into the office, which we are now well on our way to seven full months, I've been looking at some of the positions and I could not understand as I was going through the various grades for management why both public safety officials, the fire chief and police chief were not in the same category," Marchetti said.

"I was approached by the fire chief to discuss the differentials in that and the current salaries and looking at the differential between the current police chief and the current fire chief."

He added that they supervise about the same number of people and the fire chief has multiple stations to take care of "so as an effort for equity, I am looking to upgrade the fire chief to the same level as the police chief."

It was clarified that the $3,000 stipend received for being the director of emergency management will remain.

For the past several years, the city has been under a contract with Donovan O'Connor & Dodig LLP for city solicitor services. It was revealed that Stephen Pagnotta intends to retire at the end of the year and the firm has communicated that nobody is willing to take his position.

The city is looking into hiring a full-time solicitor rather than contracting for services. The board supported a reclassification from Grade M-9 with a salary ranging from $98,171 to $127,623 annually to Grade M-10 with a salary ranging from $107,983 to $140,377 annually.

"I will say that I think the city needs to take a dual approach and one will be to advertise or to recruit someone as a city solicitor and then also submit an RFP for the potential of engaging another law firm," Marchetti said.

"I don't think we're going to find a law firm in Berkshire County who is going to want to the position and quite frankly, I don't think that I as mayor want a city solicitor stationed in Boston that is only here when needed."

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