Quoted Text

Help wanted again: A good Sch'dy city engineer
Sunday, November 13, 2011
By Kathleen Moore (Contact)
Gazette Reporter

SCHENECTADY — The city is searching yet again for a professional engineer.
It’s the third time in seven years that Schenectady has lost an engineer, a situation that city officials used to attribute to poor pay and overwork.
The engineer supervises multi-million dollar projects for water, sewer and street divisions. In larger cities, those divisions are each overseen by a separate engineer.
But in Schenectady, there’s only enough money to pay one. The salary has gone up significantly during the city’s stretch of short-term engineers, but the city still got only one applicant when it last advertised two years ago.
The salary then was $94,000. It is now $95,880. In 2004, when the city’s dry spell began, the salary was $76,734.
City Engineer Paul Casillo promised to work for the $94,000 salary for two years. His time is now up, and he retired last month. After a two-week vacation, he returned to work on an hourly basis......................>>>>....................>>>>......................http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2011/nov/13/1114schdy-city-engineer/

Schenectady is still looking for professional government. Why should the engineer be any different?

Doesn't the same scenerio play out in Rotterdam ?

Rotterdam doesn't have an engineer, they just rely on anything the developers engineers tell them.

Why do we need an engineer when we have Man of Many Hats McCarthy.  Wasnt it his idea to use the new paving method?

Does the phrase "in larger cities" mean that cities LARGER THAN SCHENECTADY have separate engineers for different functions, or does it mean that LARGER CITIES SUCH AS SCHENECTADY usually employ several engineers? There is an important difference! I wish the newspapers would quit spreadingthe propaganda that Schenectady doesn't have money.
Is there some kind of large scale project going on with our infrastructure? During that hurricane, a lot of my neighbors had flood problems exacerbated by the crumbled pipes under the streets, which our city seems to believe can be replaced piecemeal.
If I were an engineer, I wouldn't want a job where monies were allocated to all kinds of frivolous crap while the most vital infrastructure was being let go literally to pieces.
I think there might be something wrong with the job as advertised, rather than the compensation. Are higher paying engineering jobs with benefits THAT easy to come by? If it is true that the going rate is higher, then pay the going rate. I know it galls city officials to have a job they can't just hand off to some crony, as it requires some expertise.

Quoted from Madam X

Does the phrase "in larger cities" mean that cities LARGER THAN SCHENECTADY have separate engineers for different functions, or does it mean that LARGER CITIES SUCH AS SCHENECTADY usually employ several engineers? There is an important difference! I wish the newspapers would quit spreadingthe propaganda that Schenectady doesn't have money.
Is there some kind of large scale project going on with our infrastructure? During that hurricane, a lot of my neighbors had flood problems exacerbated by the crumbled pipes under the streets, which our city seems to believe can be replaced piecemeal.
If I were an engineer, I wouldn't want a job where monies were allocated to all kinds of frivolous crap while the most vital infrastructure was being let go literally to pieces.
I think there might be something wrong with the job as advertised, rather than the compensation. Are higher paying engineering jobs with benefits THAT easy to come by? If it is true that the going rate is higher, then pay the going rate. I know it galls city officials to have a job they can't just hand off to some crony, as it requires some expertise.

Schenectady is bankrupt. Every week McCarthy loses another $200,000. The engineer bailed as many are bailing before Roger Hull takes over. McCarthy can't even solve the pit bull menace. He's an engineer like he's a law enforcement expert or economic development planner. The DEMS like outside consultants. That helps retain "jobs" for themselves.

Why don't they just employ the firm santabarbara works for? Isn't that the way things are done? Isn't 'that' called working together?

Here it goes, there will be yet ANOTHER city job for someone who refuses to move into the city

Quoted Text

City hires resident as its new engineer
Wallin, 31, formerly worked in department
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

A city resident will take the engineering job that city offi cials have struggled to fi ll. Christopher R. Wallin began working as city engineer today.
    Wallin worked for Schenectady as a junior civil engineer for two years, beginning in 2005 when he graduated from Union Graduate College. He was promoted to assistant civil engineer, but left the city to take an engineering job in the private sector.
    He was among several engineers who left the city, leading offi cials to say they had to offer higher salaries to keep the engineering department staffed.
    At the time, the junior civil engineering salary was $35,000, and after Wallin left, the city couldn’t find anyone willing to take the job.
    The position went unfi lled for more than a year, and city offi cials said they were offering about twothirds of what an engineer could make in a similar position in the private sector.
    But that was nothing compared with the trouble the city had fi nding a city engineer.
    Wallin is the third city engineer in eight years. Each time, the city coped with a long wait while mayors negotiated to get a qualifi ed engineer to work for the budgeted salary.
    When the dry spell began in 2004, the top engineer’s salary was $76,734. That has been increased slowly as engineers refused to take the job, or agreed to take it only for a short time. Wallin will be paid $95,000.
    But unlike the others, he’s not nearing retirement and he hasn’t warned the city that he will only take the job for a short time to help Schenectady out of a crisis.
    Wallin, 31, plans to make a career out of the position, Mayor Gary McCarthy said.
    The engineer supervises multimillion-dollar projects for water, sewer and street divisions. In larger cities, those divisions are each overseen by a separate engineer. But in Schenectady, there’s enough money to hire only one.
    Wallin graduated from Schenectady High School in 1999 and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2003. He graduated from Union Graduate College with an MBA in 2005 and was immediately hired by the city.
    But in 2008, he left to work for Creighton Manning Engineering. In 2009, he took a job with M.J. Engineering and Land Surveying.
    He lives near Central Park with his wife, Lisa, and their 16-monthold daughter, Samantha. ...............................>>>>............................>>>>........................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00901&AppName=1

I'm glad to see he's living in the city,  +1 for that.

Now - about that city owned vehicle he'll be assigned ... after all, it's a long commute into work.  Have they sold Stratton's Jeep yet?  Maybe there's an extra Hummer sitting around someplace.

I thought this job was Angelinas for the taking, no?

For that kind of pay, he can afford to live in the city and pay the taxes.

Good that it's someone who will (for the time being) live in the city.

If I lived in the city however, maybe I'd be a bit concerned about lack of work history for such a high level job.   Only 8 years in the working world.  He does have his PE at least.   And he's got both public and private sector history, but rather a revolving door wouldn't you say?    Creighton does work for the city I'm sure. Wallin works for the city then goes to work for a firm that does stuff for the city, and now coming back to work for the city.    Do the city taxpayers know what kind of score he got on civil service tests?   What was his performance evaluation working for the city.   What specific job assignments did he work on as a city employee in the past and were any of them jobs that CM did work on?     You know, that ethics stuff and the revolving door.  

Let's hope that when he sees how bad things are under the roads and stuff, that he doesn't decide to stay with the job but move out of the city with McC supporting such a residential move.


.