The labor union representing some Ottawa city employees believes a contract to outsource utility locating services will cost $93,000 more per year. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 2819 says Ottawa does the work of marking water line locations in-house now. It says having USIC do it will cost a lot more, plus USIC is an out-of-state non-union firm.
Mayor Dan Aussem says the union is wrong about the costs. City Hall’s plan is for having the city workers do other things when someone calls 811 to have utilities marked.