Rainbow MWD engineering staff to move to FPUD offices

As part of the functional consolidation between the Fallbrook Public Utility District and the Rainbow Municipal Water District, the engineering departments of the two districts will be merged and Rainbow’s engineering staff will move into the FPUD offices.

“The schedule now calls for the combining at the Fallbrook office of the two staffs by July 1,” said Brian Brady, who is the general manager of both districts as well as the executive officer of the North County Joint Powers Authority which consists of the two districts. “We believe it’s going to be a really efficient arrangement for both districts.”

The North County JPA had a board meeting June 5 which included a non-voting informational presentation on the progress of consolidating the two engineering departments along with the cost and savings to relocate the Rainbow staff to the FPUD office. Two scenarios were presented; in both cases one-time costs were $40,000 for FPUD office improvements, $7,000 for the integration of networks, and $5,000 for moving expenses while the annual cost of additional mileage to Rainbow job sites was estimated at $1,622. In both scenarios the cost savings of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software integration is $13,000 annually.

In the first scenario, Rainbow would likely need to hire an additional junior engineer without the consolidation at a salary of $90,000 and an annual cost of $146,250 including all benefits and, due to the developments occurring near Interstate 15 and State Route 76, Rainbow would also need to hire or contract an additional inspector or project support staff member at an annual cost of $58,500 after reimbursement for plan review and inspection fees. The use of FPUD staff in lieu of the junior engineer and inspector positions, along with the GIS integration savings, would create gross annual savings of $204,750 or net savings of $203,128 minus the $52,000 one-time costs. That would result in a payback period of 3.9 months for the one-time expenses.

The second scenario assumes the consolidation of one assistant general manager or district engineer position and that Rainbow would need to hire or contract two additional inspectors or project support staff members. The elimination of $253,000 of assistant general manager or district engineer salaries and benefits and the savings of $117,000 from using FPUD staff for the inspection work would create a $383,000 gross annual savings including the GIS savings and a $381,378 net savings after additional mileage costs. That would produce a payback period of 1.6 months for the one-time costs.