They can apply for new jobs
, but it’s unclear how many will be available.
“We will be focused on implementing the job designs that we have preferred and filling the new positions,” water department Director Sue McCormick told suburban customers last week. “That will begin substantially over the next few weeks as we announce these to the organization and identify the qualified individuals for sort of the first call on those positions.”
The change is part of a plan the department is pursuing to shrink from about 1,800 employees to less than 1,000 and reduce department overhead. The new jobs are expected to pay more than the old ones, but require broader skills and give management more flexibility in deploying workers.
“Our objective in this area is that we will complete at least 50% of our optimize project milestones six months ahead of schedule,” McCormick said.