Darien City Council Votes to Employ an In-House Mechanic
The council voted 5-1 to maintain the current structure for vehicle repairs.
Repairs on Darien’s city-owned vehicles will remain an inside job.
City Council voted 5-1 at Monday’s meeting to continue employing a full-time mechanic, similar to the one who retired over the summer, rather than pursue an agreement with Downers Grove.
Aldermen Ted Schauer (Ward 1), Tina Beilke (Ward 2), John Poteraske (Ward 3), Joerg Seifert (Ward 4) and Joe Marchese (Ward 5) each shared hesitations before voting against the proposal to send vehicle repairs to the neighboring town. Ward 7 Alderman Halil Avci was the lone yes vote. Ward 6 Alderman Sylvia McIvor was absent.
Marchese said his primary concern was the level of service Darien would receive through the agreement.
“If there’s 22 inches of snow on the street and we have a vehicle down and somebody’s street doesn’t get plowed, it’s not going to be satisfactory,” he said.
“But you won’t even know until we try it,” Mayor Kathy Weaver said. Weaver encouraged the council to consider a trial period for the arrangement.
Marchese also said a recent visit to Darien’s Municipal Services Department enlightened him to the maintenance level the city’s trucks require.
Downers Grove employs six full-time mechanics and two fleet supervisors at its repair shop, Assistant City Administrator Scott Coren has said. The village recently entered into service agreements with SEASPAR and School District 58, in addition to maintaining its own fleet of vehicles.
It takes about 15 minutes to drive to Downers Grove’s shop, compared to about five minutes to get to Darien’s, Coren said.
Until this summer, Darien employed one full-time mechanic and one general Public Works employee who assisted him, in addition to performing other duties. Tom Masek, who previously served as that assistant, has been filling in full-time since the mechanic’s retirement.
Beilke echoed Marchese’s comments, adding that she thought program oversight could be an issue.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of hand holding and time, and time is money, too,” she said.
Avci said he thought the arrangement would actually increase the city’s level of service.
“As long as it’s a trial basis, I think it’s a step in the right direction,” he said.
City Administrator Bryon Vana said earlier in the evening that the city would advertise for the mechanic position if the council didn’t approve the agreement with Downers Grove.
It will cost the city about $143,685 to employ a full-time mechanic, according to Coren’s estimates. The figure includes a base salary of about $66,000, plus benefits, overtime pay, and parts and equipment.
Downers Grove was set to charge $87 an hour for the first 1,100 hours of repairs and $45 an hour beyond that. A typical year with1,180 hours worth of repairs would cost about $129,425.
After the vote Steve Karpowicz, of the Local 150 union, applauded the decision.
“The residents of Darien I think should be very proud of you all tonight,” he said.
In This article
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Darien City Hall
1702 Plainfield Rd, Darien, IL -
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City of Darien Municipal Services
1041 S Frontage Rd, Darien, IL
Mike Mundt
7:55 am on Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Residents should be proud?? No they are ashamed. Building bigger government and adding more union employees. Seems to me those that voted in favor of adding another $143,000 a year employee have some sort of union back ground. Only ones who won in this deal are the residents of Downers Grove.
Lauren Williamson
10:03 am on Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Hi Mike,
I've updated the story to clarify that the $143,000 figure includes tools, benefits, overtime pay and other costs associated with continuing to employ a full-time mechanic.
Best,
Lauren Williamson
Editor, Darien Patch
Mike Minardi
8:14 am on Tuesday, February 7, 2012
i applaud the City Council for looking at other options including outsourcing repairs. As an example, I have been taking my vehicles to Chuck's garage in Darien for many years. Their hourly labor rate is $79. I am not sure why we could not consider "one of our own" for something like this versus a Downers Grove shop. But the idea of moving vehicle repairs from a fixed cost model (in house) to a variable cost model and also supporting a local business makes a lot of sense to me. Again, congrats for looking at options.
steve karpowicz
9:04 am on Tuesday, February 7, 2012
$143,000.00 a year Union employee? Get your facts right Mike. The Union employee currently doing the work makes less than $100,000.00 and that includes his benefit package.
Brad Drake
6:48 am on Thursday, February 9, 2012
Let me throw a situation at you, Mike. It's a Friday night snowstorm, there is a snowstorm like last year's, and one of the trucks is having a problem running. Would you rather have our city take that truck to Downers Grove, on their business hours on Saturday morning, or would you rather have our in-house mechanic fix it on Friday night and back on the street plowing on Friday night? There are certain things people need to realize, and one is that unfortunately municipalities cannot always be run like businesses. Scratching X to save on O to then bring the bottom like under Z does not always work. A municipality should always have in-house people servicing their equipment and doing the social services. Chances are, the people doing the work are local residents and take a bit of pride in their work.
You're obviously an anti-union individual and that's fine, you have the right to think however you want to think. What is a worse situation, though? An organized worker who belongs to a labor union who is drug tested, trained in his / her occupation, trained in safety, and their reputation on the line OR a non-union worker who is not drug tested, not required to have safety training by OSHA, and is questionably trained? I'd be willing to pay the dollar or to more an hour to have the union worker do my work for me.
Saving money is not always the right answer.