Changing the Game in Minnesota

By John R. Mazzitello, Contributing Author

For several years, many American public works departments have struggled with staffing. A global pandemic, along with inflation, have made this critical issue even more challenging.  

Ramsey County, Minn. has taken an innovative approach to staffing, particularly in the Program Delivery Division, and we have reached full staffing levels. Over the past year, we have filled key positions, increased productivity and efficiency and boosted morale and team cohesiveness. 

This new approach to staffing has helped our department improve the quality of life for the residents we serve.

Ramsey County’s construction engineer was required to be a senior level, professionally licensed engineer (P.E.). Since this was a public sector position, Ramsey County struggled to recruit a candidate. The salary and compensation level was not as competitive with the private sector and other public agencies. 

The position’s minimum requirements called for a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering or an equivalent field, and licensure as a P.E. in Minnesota.  

Ramsey County made a significant pivot in its thinking about this position and decided to recruit a candidate who could perform the duties of the position but did not necessarily have the degree or P.E. license.  

The idea was to recruit people from contractor companies who understood transportation construction and could manage the team of engineering technicians administering projects being built as part of the annual program.  

The position’s immediate supervisor would serve as the P.E. when necessary for field changes, change orders and other requirements requiring a P.E.’s signature.  

Interest in this position increased dramatically, and there were several qualified candidates who applied. None of the applicants were P.E. licensed. The candidate selected for construction program manager was an internal selection.  

We hired Corrine Richter, the general supervisor of highway maintenance in our Maintenance and Operations Division. She had worked as a construction technician for Saint Paul, Minn., and she also had been a GIS technician for one of the larger suburban cities in the Twin Cities Metro Area.  

Richter’s instant credibility with the engineering technician staff (and their collective bargaining unit), along with her knowledge of the construction process, made he a perfect fit for the position.  

She was thrown into the deep end quickly as 2024 marked the busiest construction season in Ramsey County history. Over $50 million worth of work was completed, spread over 29 different projects and awarded under 18 different contracts.  

Everything in the 2024 program, except for one mill and overlay project, were substantially completed by the end of that November under her leadership. 

This happened because Ramsey County had thought differently about the construction program manager position and hired Richter to fill that critical role.

Richter’s success inspired Ramsey County to look at other hard to fill positions within the Public Works Department.  

All our engineering technicians are part of a collective bargaining unit, and their contract was coming up for negotiation at the end of 2024. The timing seemed perfect. We conducted a salary survey of all the other Twin Cities Metro counties and compared our compensation program to theirs, along with the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.  

We found our wage matrix was severely non-competitive, especially in the lower steps of wage range. The county proposed, as part of the collective bargaining contract negotiation process, a new wage matrix that was far more competitive with the other agencies.  

This was the first time in the memory of our senior staff that the county brought a proposal to the table first.  

The county bringing a new wage matrix forward—and that it compared favorably with the public agencies we competed with—was a huge step forward in rebuilding the trust between county and union that existed prior to the pandemic.  

We also changed the career progression for engineering technician 1 through 3 from a competitive process to a merit-based progression. This put advancement totally on the employee, and they could attain technician 3 level when they were ready and at their schedule—rather than wait through a competitive process for promotion.

The new wage matrix and the merit-based career progression solved our retention issue, and it also helped with mid-level technician recruitment. But we still faced a problem as to how to recruit entry level technicians and develop them within the county system.  

Few enroll in programs to become technicians, and those who were enrolled were hired by the state before they graduated. Our entry level technicians still required completion of an associate’s degree before they could apply for an entry-level technician position.  

To attract entry level technicians, we needed to grab them before the state did in the education process. That’s when it hit me: 

We would recruit out of high schools and offer community college tuition to the successful applicants.  

This scholarship program would not only pay for community college tuition, but it also would pay the students at an entry level wage and an engineering technician 1 wage, even when they are in class.  

When they were not in class, they would work 40 hours a week for the county to fulfill scheduled duties and get on-the-job training. Upon graduation, they would be eligible for a promotion to engineering technician 2 and would owe the county three years of obligated service as an exchange for the tuition.  

If they failed to complete the full three years, they would owe the full cost of their tuition back to the county.  

In addition, the county had a stated goal of building generational wealth in underserved communities. The scholarship program provides the county with an opportunity to recruit from specific inner-city high schools and provide a career opportunity to a graduating teen that they may not otherwise have.  

Obviously, we would take applicants for the program regardless of where they went to high school, but a targeted recruiting effort in these areas opened a door of opportunity for dozens if not hundreds of applicants that otherwise would have never considered a career in public works. 

We had enough qualified and wiling applicants that we were able to hire four candidates from our initial posting. Two for the 2025 scholarships, and two for the 2026 program.

By changing the employment recruiting and retention processes with in our department, and with the cooperation of our collective bargaining unit, Ramsey County successfully built its technician team back to full staffing levels, increased retention through competitive compensation and made career progression easier and at the will of the employee

Ramsey County also developed a pipeline for entry level technicians by offering a scholarship benefit aimed at creating opportunities for those in our community that might not otherwise see a future career in public works.  

Our changes were a resounding success, and a win for everyone involved. I would say we successfully changed the game.

John R. Mazzitello, PE, PMP, MBA, is the deputy director of public works for Ramsey County, Minn.