Short on engineers, village hires firm to fill in

Stymied in its months-long search for a director of public works and faced recently with the resignation of its assistant engineer, the Village of Grafton will contract with a Milwaukee firm to handle its engineering duties.

The Village Board voted unanimously last week to hire Bolton & Menk, an engineering, design and planning company, to serve as the village’s acting engineer while it continues its search for a director of public works, a position that has been vacant since Amber Thomas resigned on April 25.

“The (job) posting is active, but unfortunately we have not gotten any qualified candidates for the position. Also, our assistant village engineer has submitted his resignation and his last day is Wednesday,” Assistant Administrator and Director of Community Development Jessica Wolff told the board, referring to Viktor Petrov, whose resignation was effective Wednesday, Aug. 6.

“Obviously our Department of Public Works staff is very capable, but at this point, they need help.”

Bolton & Menk was the only one of four firms approached by the village to submit a proposal for engineering services, and although the company is based in Milwaukee, it is familiar with Grafton. Kevin Kimmes, a professional engineer and Bolton & Menk’s client service manager who has served as acting engineer for the Town of Grafton and is the chairman of the Town of Saukville, will serve as the village’s acting engineer. 

Referring to the work he had done for the Town of Grafton, Kimmes wrote in Bolton & Menk’s proposal, “The work done in this capacity required me to work cooperatively and jointly with village staff for decades now. This role also allowed me to be fully knowledgeable about the aspects unique to the Village of Grafton.” 

The firm also noted in its proposal that Grafton will have access to other people on its staff if needed, including Grafton resident Andrew Plier, who has more than 15 years of experience in project management and utility design.

Bolton & Menk will charge the village $186 per hour for as many as 80 hours a week of Kimmes’ time, a discount of $100 per hour, for a monthly cost of $14,880. The hourly rate is good for three months, at which time it would be renegotiated if the village hasn’t found a director of public works.

Village officials described the contract with Bolton & Menk as a good solution to an immediate problem, but not a long-term fix. Village Administrator Jesse Thyes said Grafton remains committed to hiring a professional engineer to lead the department, although finding that person amid competition from the private sector has proven challenging.

“We did look to cast as broad a net as we could at both the state and national level,” Thyes said. 

But in a rebuke of the Village Board, Trustee Sarah Scarpace, who noted she was not on the board when the village began searching for a director of public works, took issue with the hiring process.

“I hope the current board can take this as a lesson that we need to continue doing the right protocol with hiring anybody in the village, whether it’s the administrator, civil engineer or whoever it may be because otherwise things fall through the cracks and now we are trying to hire a third party company to be our civil engineer,” she said. “This should be seen as a big warning that this kind of action or inadequacy of handling our community needs to come to an end because we’re wasting a lot of money on third-party fees.”

Wolff said that it’s not uncommon for municipalities to contract for services as they are working to fill a vacancy.

“It’s not unusual, but it is unfortunate,” she said. “I think we could have perhaps gotten through a couple more months if the assistant engineer was still in place.”

Thyes said the village has done everything it can to find a director of public works, noting that it is committed to hiring a person who is licensed as a professional engineer, one who can lead and sign off on projects, rather than someone who just has an engineering degree.

“I believe, and in talking with the outgoing engineer as well as other impacted staff, that having a PE here in Grafton is important,” Thyes said. “We’re a growing community. Having our own PE — a professional engineer — who can sign off on plans is an absolute asset.

“That said, we went after it. The job market is very competitive. We lost a PE to the private sector,” he said, referring to Thomas. “We did everything possible with regards to job description and approved salary grade. We’ve made a ton of effort.”

Village President Dan Delorit said professional engineers willing to work in the public sector are so scarce that one Wisconsin community has instead hired a person still working toward his engineering degree to serve as its engineer.

“I don’t think it does us any good to settle for anybody out there who would come here,” he said. “I think we’ve done what we can to try and get someone on board, and now we’re looking for some help.”

The village is also working to find a person to succeed Thyes, who left the village last week to become the city administrator of West Bend. The board last week entertained proposals from executive search firms vying to recruit not only the village’s next administrator but also its director of public works.

After meeting in closed session, the board decided to hire Public Administration Associates, the Whitewater firm hired by the City of Port Washington to conduct a search that resulted in the hiring of City Administrator Melissa Gossett last year and whose president, Kevin Brunner, is a former Saukville village administrator.  

The cost of conducting both of the Grafton searches is $29,200.

The other recruiting firm that submitted a proposal was MGT of Northfield, Ill.

  Last month, the board named Wolff acting administrator.