Shortage of linemen in Columbia is heavily due to pay

COLUMBIA — It powers our homes, charges our phone, and keeps much of our communities running -- electricity. But one city in mid-Missouri is having difficulty employing and keeping linemen, leaving it with a severe shortage.

"If we don't have enough linemen to keep our systems up, we're going to have very unreliable electricity," said David Peterson, the department chair for the electrical distribution program at the State Technical College of Missouri.

In Columbia, retired assistant director for Columbia City Utilities Jim Windsor said there are about 10 linemen serving roughly 50,000 people living in the city. He said during his time with the city, he saw many letters of resignation cross his desk. More recently before he left his position, he noticed letters of resignation were coming more frequently and all citing the same reason.

"It really kind of shocked me that we were losing that many people and they all said 'resigning for better pay'," said Windsor.

Windsor believes the discrepancy in pay between the city and other utility companies is large enough that the resignations might keep coming. "When other utilities will pay someone 10, 15, 20 thousand dollars more a year, it's kind of easy for them to say OK," he said.

This shortage of linemen for the city ultimately affects all of its customers, especially when weather-related events happen and cause power outages.

"When the storms break, and the ice hits, power lines go down, we have to have enough linemen to get those back up so people have heat and air and things of that nature," said Peterson.

And Windsor said it is not only the citizens who will have to deal with longer outages, but the linemen whose job becomes riskier when working at a low staffing level.

"It's putting the remaining line-workers at risk, its putting citizens at risk of longer outages and it's not maintaining the utility at the proper level," Windsor said.

That is felt by David Peterson as well.

"Without enough linemen and enough trained linemen for safety, it becomes really hazardous not only to our lives out there working on the lines but for the communities," he said.

In a statement sent to KRCG 13 by the City of Columbia, current director of utilities Tad Johnsen said he is aware there is a problem retaining and attracting employees for all positions, citing it as a city-wide issue. He also acknowledged what the reason could be.

"I believe compensation is the primary issue affecting our current vacancy rate," he said.

In addressing the issue, director of community relations for Columbia Steven Sapp said, "The City is in the midst of a study to examine wage tiers determine where they should be based on local, state, and national averages."

Sapp went on to say that it's then public policy in adopting pay scales as part of the budget process. This means any raise in city employee compensation must be approved through the city council with their approval of the city's budget.

But Windsor said he has been bringing up this issue for months and has gotten no response by Columbia's city leaders or council members.

"I went back in December to say 'hey, its been six months, what have you guys been doing?' and I still haven't heard anything so I don't know," said Windsor.

Looking forward, Johnsen said his hope for the future lies in the budgets.

"My hope is that future budgets for the City of Columbia will provide better tools to retain and attract employees for all of the positions the City needs to staff for continued provision the services our customers expect," he said.