Linemen and supervisors at Seward’s city electric department will receive a $10 per hour boost in pay in an effort to keep the city’s lights on.
The city council approved the increase April 18 to help close the pay gap between Seward and nearby communities offering much higher wages – as much as $14 more per hour for the same level of education and training.
City Administrator Greg Butcher said the city’s comparability study conducted last August showed Seward was slightly low on wages offered in its police and electric departments when compared with cities of similar size.
The council approved an increase in pay for police officers as part of its most recent budget because the city was having trouble recruiting and retaining officers who could easily travel to Lincoln for work. At that time, the Lincoln Police Department offered the highest wages in the state.
Now, Butcher said, it was time to address the same issues within the electric department, which had one lineman vacancy at the time of the meeting, though Electric Superintendent Larry Ruether said if the council didn’t raise their pay, three of his six linemen were prepared to go elsewhere.
“They’re not leaving because of culture,” Butcher said. “The reason we lose them is because of the competitive market that we’re in.”
As part of its comparability study, Seward looked to communities including Crete, York, Wahoo, Schuyler, Gretna, Beatrice, Fairbury, Plattsmouth, Blair, Nebraska City, Aurora and Wayne in what the state calls an array. These cities are of similar size or have similar utility systems.
Mayor Josh Eickmeier said the array in which a community falls is based on statutory requirements, but it’s also important to consider anecdotal evidence in situations like this.
“We’re not losing people to communities in the array, we’re losing them to other entities,” Eickmeier said.
The Lincoln Electrical System, Norris Public Power District and the Nebraska Public Power District are competitors for Seward when it comes to the labor market, though they are outside of that array.
Before the increase, starting pay for linemen in Seward was $27.36 per hour. Working up through the ranks, a line crew chief maxed out at $42.67.
Meanwhile, LES is offering up to $50.23 at the top of its pay scale.
Eickmeier said the decision came before the council now instead of during the normal budget process over the summer to keep Seward competitive in real time.
“The risk we run if we don’t…if we lag behind, we’re going to bring in someone, we’re going to pay to get them certified and trained…then they’re going to get poached by someone else,” Eickmeier said. “The concern is if we don’t do anything right now, are we just wasting time because we’re not going to get the numbers or the quality of applicant.”
The council initially considered a $5 per hour increase across all full-time electrical positions, but Ruether said he didn’t think it would be enough.
“We can go with $5, but three of my guys will be gone,” he said. “It’s a starting point, but it’s not enough to keep them.”
A $5 increase would have put Seward at 102% when compared with others in its array, second only to Schuyler.
Ruether said $10 was the minimum that might keep his crew on board.
“They’re looking at $14 (elsewhere),” he said.
Eickmeier said the problem stems from Omaha, which is recruiting linemen from Lincoln. Lincoln, in turn, is sourcing its workforce from smaller communities nearby.
“It’s going to be an arms race. Everyone’s dealing with this to some extent, especially this close to Lincoln,” Eickmeier said.
“Not only do we want to recruit hardworking, skilled linemen, we also want to retain,” Butcher said.
Ruether said it’s difficult to run the department when it’s understaffed.
“If I lose three guys, that’s going to put a lot more work on the guys that stayed,” he said. “They have vacation they’ve got to use up, so you’re short another guy sometimes. It’s morale in our department, too. It’s tough.”
Ruether said it takes about four years to train a new person on the ins and outs of Seward’s electrical system, and constant turnover can cause safety issues.
“It’s hard to train people. It’s tough when they want to leave all the time. We train so many people,” said Alan Cihal, journeyman lineman for the City of Seward. “You have just a couple people running the city all the time, on weekends. It doesn’t give us a lot of time to go anywhere or do anything.”
Jared Hochstein, line crew chief for the city, said the department has hired nine people to fill the same three positions over the last seven years.
“My guys work hard. We have a great crew right now, and it took us four years to get there. If we lose three of them, we’re starting over,” Hochstein said.
Butcher said retaining current linemen is important for succession planning and identifying who might be the next crew chief or superintendent.
“We want people running the city who were brought up in our system,” he said.
Butcher said other factors the city will need to consider include retirement benefits and healthcare coverage, as well as how quickly an employee can move through the wage scale.
“This isn’t the end of the conversation. This is triage,” Eickmeier said. “We are kind of being reactive right now. My hope is that it turns into us being proactive.”
Butcher said the electric department’s budget – the largest across all city departments – should be able to absorb the pay increase this fiscal year. The change will be taken into account in the next budget that goes into effect in October.
