Florissant City Council Discusses Hiring for Public Works Department

, Director Lou Jearls made a follow-up appeal to city councilors for the hiring of two full-time employees.

Jearls presented department figures and information to the council at its public work session Tuesday in hopes of hiring a full-time inspector and clerk.

He pointed out to the council that with the , it requires more help than he has currently.

“We’re in a situation where since ’09, we’ve lost personnel, and we’re just putting out fires,” Jearls said. “I would love to run a department with a more proactive attitude, but right now, we’re reactive.”

While councilors didn’t outright oppose the plan, many did make their concerns known.

Ward 6 Councilman Pat Stinnett said he would like to see more actual figures from the department, such as how long does it take to do an inspections and how many inspectors there are. He said he wants to advocate to be smarter about how business is done in the city.

Jearls said that the iPads would not make an immediate impact for inspectors as many of the employees are learning new technology, which could take between three to four months to start seeing results.

Ward 2 Councilman Tim Lee said he would like to see the payback of the iPads before approving the hiring of more employees. He said that during a previous meeting, Jearls said that the new technology could free up 2,000 hours for inspectors and 3,000 hours for clerical work, which could arguably result in the work of a full-time inspector.

Lee suggested that the council could consider a part-time person to help with problem properties. He asked Jearls to check into the investment of a part-time person compared to a full-time person and send it to the council for consideration.

Mayor Tom Schneider said that a part-time person could be a good compromise and resolution to the need of the department.