HCA board restructures management

Apr. 19—Two Hazleton City Authority managers have new roles as part of an administrative restructuring that was recently approved by the board of directors.

Scot Burkhardt, a nearly 30-year employee of the authority, was recently hired as director of operations while John Synoski, who has a combined 31 years experience working either for the authority or for its contracted engineering firm, was appointed director of engineering, authority board Chairman John Keegan said.

Burkhardt began his tenure with HCA's summer help program before he transitioned to draftsman and, most recently, distribution supervisor. Synoski worked for years with an engineering firm that served the HCA until he was hired internally seven years ago as director of operations and engineering, Keegan said.

The authority board restructured managerial positions after longtime Executive Director Randy Cahalan retired earlier this month to ensure HCA will continue operating smoothly during a time when multiple projects are underway, Keegan said.

"We wanted to put some management in place for the structure of the operation," Keegan said. "This is part of an overall reorganization of management that we are working on. We have 12 projects coming up and we want to make sure we have the flow of direction by management to the rest of employees."

The authority board approved both appointments on April 8, as well as resolutions related to the restructuring that eliminate Synoski's former position, formally approve the operations and engineering director posts and related job descriptions, and recognize the positions of executive director, director of operations, director of engineering, director of solid waste/customer service/IT, director of finance, office/account manager, production superintendent and SCADA/maintenance supervisor among the management structure.

The job descriptions also establishes entry, midpoint and maximum salary ranges for the operations and engineering director posts.

The entry salary for director of operations is $73,600, with "midpoint" set at $92,000 and maximum salary at $110,400, according to the job description. An appointment resolution set Burkhardt's salary as director of operations at $93,000. He received $77,003.42 as distribution supervisor.

Entry-level pay for the director of engineering salary is $86,400, $108,000 at midpoint and $129,600 at maximum, the job description states.

Synoski will receive $108,000 as director of engineering, up from the $95,760.08 he received in his previous position.

Officials will evaluate pay for both employees after six months, according to resolutions approved by the board.

Keegan said pay is based on a salary survey that the authority conducted in 2012. A 3% inflation rate was added to reflect what the board considers "a fair amount over time." Both salaries are around midrange, Keegan said.

The authority will revisit its search for an executive director at some point, the chairman said.

Burkhardt said Thursday that he plans to work with the entire management team, saying input from management and staff is important as a number of larger projects are underway.

Dam inspections, negotiations with Niagara for a bottled beverage manufacturing facility that it wants to build in Humboldt Industrial Park Northwest, a feasibility study that will explore additional water sources and costs of getting that water to HCA's filtration plant, and a request pending before the Delaware River Basin Commission for doubling the authority's daily allocation from the Lehigh River are among some of the larger projects.

"In 30 years, I don't remember it being this busy with this many projects going on at the same time," Burkhardt said. "It's a lot to organize."

He commended Cahalan, saying that while nobody at the authority can fill the former administrator's shoes, it will take the efforts of the entire staff to continue in his path.

"It's just moving forward and trying to do the best job we can to try and step in and fill Randy's shoes," Burkhardt said. "We'll have all management help out with this stuff and I think we'll move forward and in a great direction."

Contact the writer: sgalski@standardspeaker.com; 570-501-3586