Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
An ordinance establishing a Department of Public Works for the city of Warsaw was unanimously approved Monday on first reading by the Common Council.
The department will be an executive department within city government and include and have oversight over the divisions - formerly departments - of building & planning, street maintenance, engineering, wastewater and solid waste.
In presenting the ordinance to the council, Mayor Jeff Grose said a lot of work by Human Resource Director Denny Harlan’s office, the mayor’s office, the wage committee and individual discussions with council members over the past six to eight months led to the ordinance.
Harlan said Indiana code states in order for the city to have an administrator over a department, the department has to be formalized through an ordinance. That ordinance has to be approved by the council.
“So, what we’re doing is we’re going to create a department of public works. This department will oversee the street department, the wastewater utility, building and planning and engineering,” Harlan explained. “The concern we had for it and the reason we wanted to bring them all together is just so we have a centralized leadership. The communication kind of gets funneled a little bit differently to where they each know what each other is doing constantly and there’s no overlapping. So that will make us more efficient with our services to the citizens and just be a better program overall for the city.”
Grose said at the end of his first year as mayor he really felt that establishing a department “like this” with a director would help promote short- and long-term planning, consistency with project management and improved budgeting.
“Just more productive response times,” he said. “Wastewater, plan, engineering and street - they have done an excellent job, they continue to do an excellent job. ... I just believe that by putting these departments together, with a very good coach, that has earned it, I really believe we’ll be a city - when it comes to critical infrastructure - that will go from providing really good excellent service to even better.”
If the council moves the department forward, Grose said he will ask them to approve current Public Works/Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon as director.
Grose said by creating the department, it’ll “better serve the city and my office by allowing somebody else to oversee and work with, again, departments that are doing very, very well now and just wanting to do better.”
The second reading of the ordinance will be at the council’s 6 p.m. Aug. 18 meeting. Harlan said if the council approves the ordinance on second reading, then they’ll do an amendment to the salary ordinance to create the director position.
Councilman Mike Klondaris said it was his understanding the new department and new director would not be running the day-to-day operations of the divisions.
“Correct,” Grose said. “It’s mostly oversight and working with the current department heads so they will have better communication, there will be more expertise. I hate to admit it, but Dustin Dillon knows a little bit more than me about critical infrastructure and the ability to work with these departments.”
He said he thinks the citizens will be better served by the department.
Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins said, “I just know over the past several years, actually, different council members, in conjunction with myself, we’ve had conversations that we felt like maybe there needed to be - for lack of a better term - a city manager. This would kind of be the same type of situation cause I think we all realize the mayor can’t possibly coordinate all of that. No offense. But it’s a huge, huge job to try to keep all of those balls in the air.”
Grose said he hoped the new department will not only help the current city departments become more effective, but also improve communication with other departments and stakeholders.
Councilwoman Diane Quance said in her years of being on the council, she’s noticed the departments continually improve cooperating with each other.
“I think it’s a compliment to our department heads that they’ve been willing to help each other out and share resources and do all kinds of things,” Quance said. “Now sitting on the Board of Works, I see the power of going together to purchase certain things, for instance, and seeking out some of those things that are provided for us to utilize as a city that are not available to just the average person that we can save money on.”
Grose said when it comes to critical infrastructure, he doesn’t have the expertise or time to oversee and coach “these guys. That’s what led to this.”
He said Dillon knows he’ll have more responsibilities.
“This is a growing pain, but it’s one of the good pains, right? We’re growing as a city so our infrastructure needs to be built to where we can help the city continue to grow, too,” Harlan said.
Questions
Later in the meeting, when asked about the Department of Public Works already existing in the city, Grose responded, “Street department and public works, we oftentimes interchange those words. Creating this position, director of public works, you have to have that department and as a result, this ordinance will actually create the Public Works Department that will oversee the ... former departments, we call them divisions - wastewater, plan, engineering and street. So it’s sort of a redefining.”
He added they’re redefining what “public works” entails. It’ll focus on critical infrastructure.
If Dillon becomes the public works director, Grose was asked if a new person would be hired as the street superintendent.
“If (the council) pass that ordinance proposal on second reading, there will be a proposal to change the salary ordinance, which will create the director of public works, which means there will be an opening at the street department. That will be a public announcement if and when we get through this process,” Grose said.
The heads of each of the current departments will remain the heads of their divisions, such as Brian Davison remaining the head of wastewater.
“My hope is, as I’ve talked to all of them, is that they will continue to do exactly what they’re doing. They’ll have better support, communication, oversight, expertise, team spirit than I’ve been able to provide. So I’m hoping that Dustin, transitioning into this position, things will actually get even better than what they are now,” Grose said.
Monday night, half of the city’s departments presented their proposed 2026 budgets. Going forward, Grose said, “They’ll all have separate budgets right now, and, again, this will be part of what Mike (Klondaris) was asking, the 16 to 18 months or longer, us working through how all of that will work the best. You talk efficiencies, you talk dollar amounts. I’m hoping that this new position will help us evaluate not only what we’re doing now, but what we can do in the future. And with (Senate Bill 1) coming in less than 24 months, we might greatly benefit greatly from it.”
Quance said the divisions will still have separate budgets and still bring their projects before the Board of Works just like they are now.
“So nobody’s getting demoted,” she said.
Asked about the job description for the public works director, Grose said, “If the council approves, you’ll be seeing the amendment to the salary ordinance. There has been a new job position that has been created, but, again, it’s sort of the cart before the horse. ... You’re going to see those kind of things or hear about that as we move forward, if the council - because of state code and rules - supports that ordinance.”
He said Harlan has drafted a salary ordinance amendment and job description for Dillon.
Currently, if a resident has a concern or complaint about infrastructure, there’s four department heads to choose from. If the department and director position goes forward, Dillon will be the person to respond to those.
“It won’t be that simple, but that will be part of the goal. Instead of calling one department head or one department, now I’ve got to call another one, and then let’s see what the mayor knows, and then that will lead to another call or delay. The hope is that we can - again, more efficiency, and have that expertise and oversight to help all of these departments not only communicate better with each other, but also communicate better with the public. That’s critical,” Grose said.
The goal would be that the mayor has to be involved less, he said, with the director stepping up but the director would work directly with the mayor.
Dillon said, “We talk about goals. The five words: communication, team spirit, efficiency, expertise and oversight. Which the goal is enhance communication will encourage team spirit, increasing overall efficiency, initiating a driven desire for growth and expertise, creating a limited need for oversight.”
He said everyone is doing a fantastic job and it’s been fun to get started working with them, but “the entire goal is to streamline operations to make it more effective and efficient for all involved for our 16,000 residents that depend on what we do and the decisions we make daily.”
