Meridian’s freshwater and wastewater departments have reliable, dedicated employees but a lack of training and leadership prevents the two utilities from reaching their full potential, Waggoner Engineering’s Scott Phillips said Thursday

The Meridian City Council hired Waggoner to perform a 30-day assessment of the city’s freshwater and wastewater systems after the retirement of a longtime city employee highlighted staffing deficiencies in the two departments. Phillips said his team found a high number of vacancies, as well as a lack of managerial staff, has left a reactionary workforce in the departments with little to no time for proactive measures.

“There are many dedicated who have on-the-job experience but really lack the proper training and credentials and certifications that we would like them to have,” he said.

Meridian’s freshwater system is made up of two water treatment plants, five storage tanks holding approximately 12 million gallons of water and about 470 miles of water lines running beneath city streets, Phillips said. The south treatment plant, which is located on B Street, is a simpler plant which supplies water to residents south of 20th Street. The north treatment plant is a more complex and complicated facility, he said, and the assessment found a limited knowledge among current staff as to how the plant actually works.

“On the south part of the system, which is from about 20th down, there is one tank, Mt. Barton,” he said. “Five and a half million gallons of water, so it’s a lot of water. It’s about a day’s supply for the city, but it can only supply up to about 20th Street. If that tank is out of service, we have an issue on the south side of the system.”

The city’s wastewater system is similar with two wastewater treatment plants and about 450 miles of pipe, as well as 67 lift stations, Phillips said. Lift stations pump wastewater to higher elevations where needed for gravity to move it along the network of pipes to the appropriate treatment facility. Many of those lift stations, he said, need work.

As part of the assessment, Waggoner staff inspected 18 of the city’s lift stations and extrapolated the data to get an idea of the scope of work needed across the entire city system. Phillips said those assessments found about half had non-operational pumps, and 17% percent had no pump operating at all. Around 72% of the lift stations also need their control panels to be replaced, he said.

“The issues that the city is dealing with, water and wastewater, they didn’t happen in the last two years or last five years,” he said. “They’ve happened over the last decades.”

Currently, a total of 54 employees work across both the freshwater and wastewater departments, Phillips said, and there are 36 unfilled positions. The vacancies are mostly felt in the management roles where long-term planning, coordination between different areas of the departments and leadership is developed, he said.

As part of the 30-day assessment, Waggoner also agreed to develop a proposed contract to continue assisting the city for a full year. Phillips said the proposal calls for 10 managers to help organize and coordinate city employees’ efforts. While there, the managers will also work to train city staff to assume management roles, recruit additional staff for the freshwater and wastewater departments and develop the needed procedures and protocols to keep the water systems running smoothly.

Mayor Jimmie Smith said the purpose of bringing Waggoner in is to help transition the city’s efforts from being reactive to proactive. He said training current employees is also a key part of the initiative to create pathways to advancement that incentivize workers to stay.

“One of the things for sure is we should have a progression is what we’re talking about, where you have people that are going to stay here the next 10, 15, 20 years,” he said.

The city also needs to examine the open positions and the needs of the departments to see how things have changed, Smith said. Revising some of the jobs and eliminating others can help free up funding for more competitive pay, he said.

On Tuesday, the Meridian City Council tabled a contract with Waggoner that would help address some of the issues identified in the assessment citing unanswered questions.

The one-year contract caps costs to the city at $150,000 per month, or $1.8 million for the full year. Council members are expected to discuss the contract further in a work session set for 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 12, in the auditorium on the third floor of city hall. Although the council does not stream work sessions, the meetings are open for any member of the public to attend.