WEST HAVEN — Reflecting continued growth in West Haven, city leaders are proposing creation of a new post to handle planning functions, pulling the responsibilities from the list of duties managed by the city engineer.

The change, outlined in the proposed 2021-2022 budget, would result in an increased outlay of nearly $118,000 by the city to cover the cost of divvying the post, creating two full-time positions out of one, an engineer and a planner. But as the city expands, homes sprout and more people move in, it’s a tough “juggling act” to have one official handle the varied duties, said Matt Jensen, the West Haven city manager. By dividing the responsibilities among two city staffers, says Jensen, the upshot should be more responsive service to residents and businesses in the planning process.

At the same time, city leaders are proposing elimination of the part-time emergency services manager post, which would save $17,000 in the coming fiscal year. Instead, the responsibilities — seeking out funding to help cover emergency services costs, among other things — would be absorbed elsewhere within the city administration, Jensen said.

The West Haven City Council holds a public hearing on Wednesday on the tentative spending plan for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1. Then it’s to consider formal adoption of the budget. Proposed general fund spending, reflecting the majority of city expenses, totals $11.72 million for the coming year, up from the 2020-2021 amended budget figure of $10.68 million, which reflects a reduction from the originally budgeted total of $12.81 million.

West Haven is the fastest-growing city in Weber County over the past decade and one of the most quickly expanding locales in Utah, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Yet both planning and engineering functions have been handled by one official, currently Steven Anderson, the city planner/engineer. Such an arrangement may have been manageable before, but not so much now as the city expands and demand for engineering and planning services grows.

Anderson is actually a contracted employee, and per the proposed change for 2021-2022, the engineer and community development director, the new planning post, would become full-time city staffers. The community development director would also be responsible for code enforcement issues and handling building permit requests.

Creating the two posts would boost the personnel budget for the functions, including wages and benefits, to $315,941, up from around $198,000 for 2020-2021. About $99,000 of the increase would be covered by funding coming chiefly from taxes while the rest would come from a separate fund made up of revenue generated by rates and fees for varied services, according to Jensen.

As for the emergency services manager post, Jensen said he’d initially take over the functions while figuring out how to handle them. Stephanie Carlson had handled the functions as a member of the West Haven City Council before she was voted out in 2019. “I admire her for her ability to step up and do it,” Jensen said.

Later, Carlson was brought on as a part-timer to handle the duties, but Jensen said the current City Council wants to eliminate the post in the coming year’s budget, in part as a cost-savings measure.