Tension apparent over hiring for sewer plant

Tension simmered last week during a discussion of what staffing direction Grand Coulee will ultimately take in staffing its wastewater treatment plant.

Council members Anita Eylar and Ruth Dalton pressed others on which direction the council was leaning: filling the need with the city’s own employees or continuing to contract it out.

The latter was the course the council took earlier this year, but only on an emergency basis. The city’s current contract with a union allows for contracting out city jobs in an emergency only, city officials said at the time.

Eylar noted that an applicant for the specialized wastewater treatment facility technician job had not even been called for an interview and took a different job. She wondered why.

Dalton said the job had not been advertised until July, even though it opened up last January. Then the city had to engage a consultant to take over on an emergency basis.

The city superintendent advocated at the time for filling the job with an employee who could work on the city crew part of the time, like one who retired in August.

Doubting a qualified technician could be found in time, the city council voted to hire the consultant on a temporary basis.

Eylar warned last week that the arrangement could court union trouble if allowed to go on very long.

“At some point, that needs to be challenged,” Councilmember Tom Poplawski said.

With the one applicant taking another job before even being offered an interview, Eylar said, it felt like “a little stonewalling” was happening, and she wanted to understand the direction the council was leaning.

Councilmember Tom Poplawski, Mayor Paul Townsend and Councilmember Gary Carrier said that while a part-time wastewater tech had fit well for the city in the past, the specialty is now apparently in short supply of qualified technicians, making the hiring challenging.

In the meantime, Poplawski said, the plant is “being managed very well.”