WESTFIELD – The City’s Water Commission and Board of Public Works will convene in a special joint session tonight to name a new director for the consolidated Department of Public Works which will come into existence with the new 2016 fiscal year on July 1, 2015.
The joint meeting should be brief because there is only one candidate, Dave Billips, who is currently the superintendent of the Water Resource Department and the interim superintendent of the Public Works Department.
The City Council voted in April to combine all of the city departments responsible for maintaining the city’s infrastructure into one Public Works organization.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said the city used a two-tiered approach to reviewing candidates who applied for the new post. A screening committee went through the resumes of the candidates and selected three to be interviewed by a separate committee.
The interview committee, which included Human Resource Director Karin Decker, Community Development Director Peter J. Miller Jr., City Solicitor Susan Phillips, Water Commission Chairman Ronald J. Cole and Board of Public Works Chairman John Sullivan, interviewed three candidates Friday, June 19 and unanimously selected Billips for the new post.
Cole said the committee felt that “Dave stood head and shoulders above the other two candidates.”
Cole said that Billips has extensive experience in both water and wastewater treatment and holds licenses “those other two candidates don’t hold.
“I think that his experience with the city and his ability to work within the city’s political structure was a major factor in his selection,” Cole said Monday. “Dave also has a track record of correcting deficiencies within departments, correcting issues, so he had a proven record as a go-to guy.”
“We all agreed that his past history in those areas was the key strength he brought to the table,” Cole said. “We had the final interview Friday and the consensus of the five interview committee members was to offer the job to Dave.”
The revised DPW structure includes administration and four functional divisions, each headed by a deputy superintendent. The divisions are Public Works; Wastewater and Collections Systems; Parks and Recreation; and Water.
The public works division will have two subdivisions: a highway subdivision and a subdivision for refuse, recycling collections and for the transfer station operations.
The wastewater division includes the wastewater treatment plant and the collections segment of that division which is related to stormwater and sewer line maintenance.
The parks and recreation division will include the natural resources subdivision for maintenance of the city’s parks and infrastructure, as well as a tree maintenance subdivision.
The water department will remain pretty much within its current structure.
