Building Upland's Future Part 4: Staffing and Organizational Challenges

Upland runs with half the staff of nearby cities. That means slower fixes, delayed projects, and heavier reliance on consultants.

Councilman James Breitling

9/21/20252 min read

Post 4: Current Staffing & Organizational Challenges

The Challenge
Over the last few years, our Capital Improvement Program has grown dramatically. We now have over 134 active projects worth $76.5 million dollars across streets, water, sewer, parks, and city facilities. While this level of investment is a positive sign, our staffing model simply hasn’t kept up.

In fact, Upland’s current Public Works and Utilities divisions are significantly understaffed compared to our neighboring cities.

In Utilities, we operate with just 37 employees — that’s 0.46 staff per 1,000 residents. The regional average is nearly double that. We’re short by about 31 positions.
In Public Works Operations, we have 41 employees — that’s 0.51 staff per 1,000 residents. The regional average is 1.35. That means we’re short by about 67 positions.
Combined, our gap is roughly 98 positions compared to where we should be.

The consequences of this are real. We are forced into reactive maintenance instead of preventive planning. Our project backlog continues to grow. And our roads tell the story — Upland’s pavement condition index is 57, rated “Fair,” but projected to fall into the “Poor” category within just five years if we don’t act.

Organizational Weaknesses
The structure of our departments is also a problem. We have a flattened management system with too few supervisors and no central accountability for capital projects. Asset inventories are incomplete, vendor compliance is hard to enforce, and staff are stretched too thin to keep up with the demands.

Add to that our recruitment and retention challenges. We currently have 38 vacancies citywide — about 14% of our workforce — and our turnover rate is more than 31 percent. That means almost a third of our workforce is turning over in a given year.

Proposed Solutions

So, what do we do? We have put forward a reorganization plan that strengthens leadership, adds specialized expertise, and restores accountability.

Key changes include:

Creating a Deputy Director of Public Works and a Deputy Director of Utilities to provide supervisory depth.
Adding specialized roles like a Senior Traffic Engineer, an Engineering and Advanced Planning Manager, a Policy and Legislative Affairs Manager, and additional compliance staff.
Expanding front-line capacity with new customer service specialists, a GIS technician, and even engineering interns to support project delivery.

We’re also tying accountability into our processes:

Every CIP project now has an assigned project manager.
Monthly cross-departmental meetings keep projects aligned and moving.
And performance evaluations now include project delivery standards.

Fiscal Impact
Of course, this comes with a cost. The new positions represent about $1.25 million dollars annually in salary and benefits.

But we’re offsetting part of this by freezing five lower-level positions and reducing reliance on outside staff augmentation contracts. And importantly, the FY 2025–26 Mid-Cycle Budget maintains a balanced General Fund with a positive net position of $163,000 even after these changes.

Ultimately, this isn’t about growing government for the sake of it. This is about catching up to where we should have been all along. If we fail to invest in our staffing today, the cost of delayed infrastructure will multiply — sometimes eight to fourteen times more expensive if we wait until failure.

This reorganization is about putting Upland back on solid footing, ensuring accountability, and making sure we deliver the streets, parks, utilities, and facilities our residents expect.