City to hire utilities manager

The city has dashed a controversial plan to outsource a vacant managerial position in the wastewater department to a private company. The move was welcomed by city employees, who had decried the plan.\nIn January, the city solicited proposals from private firms to oversee operations at the city's two sewage treatment plants, which treat about 15 million gallons of water a day. City officials, who thought such an arrangement might save money and increase efficiency, said it was only one option they were investigating.\nBut it hit a nerve and elicited a firestorm of criticism from wastewater employees and liberal critics, who didn't take kindly to the idea of "privatizing" a public resource. They attended public forums on the subject in droves, raising the question of whether an outsourced manager would be accountable to rate payers.\n"We really appreciated the public's involvement during the process and would like to thank all those involved for their interest and dedication to exploring different options," said Utilities Director Mike Philips. "After going through the process I feel we've made the best decision."\nThe city announced Friday it would hire a manager as a public employee, likely from within the existing pool of wastewater employees. The city's employees services department has been accepting applications for the plant manager position since June 14.\nThe deadline to apply is 5 p.m. Monday.\n"We'll make the determination if we have to broaden the search," Philips said. "But we expect to hire from within."\nThe utilities department had reviewed proposals from Environmental Management Corp. of St. Louis, United Water Company of New Jersey, Bynum Fanyo & Associates of Bloomington and utilities employees on how to best manage the sewage treatment plants. The average annual fee stood in the $100,000 range, and the companies touted long-term savings in the millions.\n"It's in the city's best interests to continuously explore ways of improving operations and providing higher quality services," Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez said. "Throughout the process everyone has been open to the idea of looking at ways to do things better. It was a good process in terms of opening up possibilities and we gained valuable information we can use to the benefit of rate payers."\nFernandez said the city plans to work toward a collaborative labor/management model to run the Dillman and Blucher Poole facilities. Few details have been worked out.\n"We're talking about a very important public entity," Philips said. "We don't have a timetable yet, but we just want to do the best job we can"