The Administration Division's employees provide a variety of services to the department and the community. The division is divided into four work units: Director's Office, Development Services, Utility Planning, and Water Resources.
Administration
The Director’s Office provides overall direction to the department, manages and develops regulations for public infrastructure, conducts special audits of programs, coordinates development of the annual department budget, evaluates financing alternatives for public works programs, and coordinates department emergency preparedness and communication needs.
Budget and Cost Control coordinates development of the annual operating budget, special project accounting, cost reviews of all capital projects, yearly revenue forecasts, and provides support to the COSA rate-setting studies.
Administrative Services supports all of the above functions, plus staff support for all City Hall-based functions.
Development Services
The Development Services Section provides public infrastructure information to citizens and reviews applications, issues permits, and provides public inspection of private development activity for the department. Such development activity includes setting infrastructure requirements for land use applications, public facilities construction, and site work for building permit projects. This group manages the Urban Growth Management program defined in Salem Revised Code Chapter 66, the FEMA floodplain program, franchise utility permit and inspection programs, landslide hazards and erosion control programs, and public information functions for the department regarding development activity. This group also assists in the utility master planning program by coordinating requirements and construction by private development.
Utility Planning
The Utility Planning Section staff provide engineering and financial expertise and implement the master plans for water, sewer, and stormwater. The staff is charged with developing, refining, and implementing long-range utility master plans to ensure the City of Salem will have properly planned utility infrastructure to provide water, stormwater, and wastewater services for existing and future customers. Computer hydraulic modeling services are also provided to ensure the master plans are implemented correctly. Modeling services are provided to the Development Services Section, the Engineering Division, and the Operations Division of the Public Works Department.
Water Resources Section
The Water Resources Section staff are responsible for managing all of the City’s public wetlands, as well as the environmental permitting for Public Works projects. The Water Resources staff is responsible for managing the Mitigated Wetlands Program and the citywide response to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) listings, principally for salmon and steelhead. The group also facilitates issuance of the Public Works Department's regulatory agency permits for environmental compliance in the Capital Improvements Program. The group coordinates with local, state and federal regulatory agencies and serves as department advisors to achieve all of the City's environmental program objectives related to water resources, including drinking water, wastewater, and drainage systems.
Section staff continue to be involved with implementation of many action items set forth by the Stormwater Master Plan , including several related to the requirements of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA). Some of these items include evaluating potential regional detention sites, prioritizing master plan-identified capital improvement projects for revenue bond funding, implementation of continued efforts to prioritize our urban streams and their needs, increasing stream flow and water quality monitoring, and refinement of the stormwater computer model to support Capital Improvements Program projects.