7.
Finance
April Transportation Committee Finance Reports
A.
KDOT CFO Vanvooren stated the monthly financial reports were on file. No
additional report was made.
B.
FY2025 Transportation Budget Development - Personnel
KDOT Deputy Dir. Rickert provided the FY2025 Transportation Budget Discussion on
Personnel. At last month's Committee meeting, additional information was requested
on personnel considerations. Rickert explained that he would be speaking on vacant
positions, job positions, and title changes. He stated that he has had discussions with
the Director of Finance about how to retain vacant positions. He was advised to bring
resolutions forward to this committee for a vote. Rickert reviewed the KDOT
Organizational Chart. He highlighted the current vacant positions. He reviewed the
FY2025 Transportation Budget Development - Personnel Considerations. Currently,
there are seven open positions, with most being engineers. Rickert shared the various
impacts these vacancies have on the department. KDOT has requested that an
exception be made to the FY2025 Budget Policy, allowing KDOT to retain all seven
positions and continue trying to fill them. Rickert reviewed the job duties and
importance of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Regional Liaison & Bike/Ped Manager, and
professional engineering positions. He thanked the committee and county staff for their
efforts on the County's Internal Equity Study. Through the study, KDOT was able to
implement $10K-$15K pay increases for their engineers. This has helped retain current
employees, but is still inadequate to hire the proper staff. Rickert compared Kane
County's Division of Transportation (KDOT) with a peer county. He reviewed each
vacant engineering position's job description, grade/pay scales, and importance of
each. (Committee Chairman Davoust arrived in-person at 9:27 a.m.) Rickert asked the
Committee for a consensus to move forward with drafting a resolution and placing it on
the next Executive Committee agenda. He summarized that this resolution would be an
exception to the current budget policy to retain all seven positions, while trying to fill
them. He spoke on the County's cost savings that hiring in-house specialists would
have. Rickert reported that over the next couple years, KDOT will have approximately
seven retirements in key positions.
Pro-Temp Chairman Tepe announced that Committee Chairman Davoust had arrived
and relinquished the Chair position.
Rickert and KDOT staff addressed questions and comments from the Committee.
Much discussion ensued. The Committee provided consensus to accept the proposed
resolution to retain the seven vacant positions and have it included on the next
Executive Committee agenda.