Next on the chopping block: city planner

HIGH SPRINGS – In recent months, City of High Springs officials have made sweeping changes to the personnel landscape there; and now, City Planner Christian Popoli may be the next to go.

On March 8, commissioners voted 3-1 to direct City Manager Jeri Langman to poll other cities to determine what types of engineers they have on staff and then place an advertisement to solicit applications for a staff engineer.  Commissioner Sue Weller opposed the action.

Vice Mayor Bob Barnas made the suggestion and the motion to hire an engineer, which he said would be done at the expense of the city planner position.

“We’re at a point now in my mind, where we need a city engineer to deal with some of the things that are going on with the sewer system, with the GRU fiber optics,” Barnas said, adding, “We need CAD drawings that are going to cost us a fortune.  But what if we bring an engineer on staff and can set that up here?”

Weller said she was against the change and recommended that such a move be done during budget planning for next fiscal year.

“One of the things I think you need to do is a thorough review of this.  There are all kinds of engineers,” she said.

“The fact that you hire an engineer doesn’t mean they’re going to be able to handle all of the different types of things that come up in our city,” Weller said, also casting doubt on the city being able to find an engineer for the same amount paid to City Planner Popoli.

“I have heard many times, our city manager indicate that our planner is just constantly overloaded with work,” said Weller, adding, “If you want to add an additional position of a city engineer, fine, but not at the elimination of the planner.”

In support of the change, Barnas read through a list of engineering costs since 2008, which he said amounted to more than a million dollars.  The majority of those costs were related to the city’s sewer system construction.

High Springs resident Robyn Rush said she didn’t envision a staff engineer handling the larger projects such as the sewer system or roads, but instead, smaller problems such as draining issues.

“See if you can get somebody for $50,000,” said Rush.  “They don’t have to be the most proficient, but they certainly would have an understanding of some basic civil engineering principles.”

Resident and former High Springs City Attorney Thomas DePeter noted that many of the engineering fees paid by the city are passed along to developers who submit their projects for development review.

Barnas first proposed adding the staff engineer and information technology positions during a Feb. 9 public hearing in which several major budget amendments were made to the current budget.  Both positions were included in the overall amendment package, but when pressed at that time about their funding, Barnas said he was not proposing to fund them.

During a Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) board meeting just before the commission meeting on March 8, Barnas also pushed to have Popoli, the current City Planner, removed as the board’s executive director.  Popoli had no voting powers on the board.  Rather, he served as a staff liaison to coordinate the meetings and projects undertaken by the CRA.

In replacement of Popoli on the CRA, Barnas sought to have the board approve hiring an executive director from the community at a rate of $250 monthly.  Popoli, who is paid as the city planner, was not provided an additional stipend for serving as the CRA’s executive director.