WARREN — The Trumbull County Sanitary Engineer’s Office has fallen so short of staff members that things are not getting done.

The department has 11 open positions and is expected to lose another two people because of a retirement and one employee who is expected to leave.

Commissioner Rick Hernandez during Tuesday’s workshop advocated to allow the department to fill the positions of the two people expected to leave and to fill several other positions.

“I know we have an advisory panel that will be looking at this, which I caution the commissioners not to take away from citizens. Our duty, as elected officials, is to oversee these departments and the way it is done,” he said. “We can take recommendations from these individuals (on the advisory panel), but ultimately we have the duty to fulfill our elected positions. This is our responsibility.”

The commissioners earlier this year called for the creation of an advisory panel of elected officials and other residents from the villages and townships that are clients of the county’s water district as a way to monitor the district’s use of funds it receives from fees paid by water customers.

Commissioners last month approved a water rate increase to $11.75 per 1,000 gallons across all county districts. It was the first comprehensive rate increase in 10 years.

As part of a compromise to gain the support of Commissioner Tony Bernard for the increase, the commissioners approved the establishment of a 12-member water panel that will review the district’s operations and spending. They also agreed to have a performance audit done on the department.

The district needed the rate increase because it had operated at a loss since 2019, with last year’s $1.5 million deficit projected to go up to $1.6 million this year if nothing was done.

Commissioner Denny Malloy on Tuesday said every community that purchases water from the county, except for one, has provided a name of a person to serve on the panel.

Trumbull County Sanitary Engineer Gary Newbrough said he is willing to work with the panel.

“We are down to this many people and we are lacking in being able to provide different services,” he said. “We are short-handed. Right now, engineers are my biggest concern. We have three in the Vienna office. For the whole month of April and the rest of this month, one of them has been on medical leave.”

Newbrough said his office has been receiving petitions for various water and sewer projects that his office has not had time to do.

“Normal staffing in the Vienna office is five engineers,” Newbrough said. “Right now we’re at three and one has been out during the past five to six weeks.

“There is also a large problem in our county with inflow and infiltration into our sanitary sewer system,” he said. “We need to remove that from our sewer system and I have an idea how to do it.”

Commissioner Tony Bernard questioned when these vacancies occurred.

“Did they just happen?” he asked. “Did they happen last year?”

Bernard suggested this type of problem is one of the first things the panel would handle.

Commissioner Denny Malloy said the advisory panel is a group that Newbrough can make a plea for new employees.

“These people here are all elected officials,” he said. “They know they need certain things for their residents.”

Bernard said the water advisory council or panel only will address issues dealing with the county’s water, not its sewer district requirement. He said they need to keep the needs of the water district separate from the sewer district.

The commissioners agreed to allow the water district to place advertisements for the two workers now expected to leave.

“The directive I would like to set is when we came into the budget process we were not going to create new positions,” Malloy said. “As people retire, we should evaluate if the positions are still needed.”

Malloy said they want to have a smaller government and judgment calls will have to be made in particular situations based on information from department heads and the county’s human resource director’s office.

The commissioner said that in certain departments, including Trumbull 911 and correction officers, the number of employees is so low they have a blanket rule allowing the hiring of new employees as they find qualified candidates.

“For others, I would like some recommendations made to us for the need of the positions,” Malloy said.