PORTAGE | The City Council on Tuesday took steps to boost the director of public works/city engineer salary as the position remains vacant.

On Mayor Olga Velazquez's request, the council approved reinstating the director of public works salary, which had been cut earlier this year. The salary was set at $65,000 per year, but was dropped by $5,000 earlier this year when the city hired a building commissioner, a position that had previously fallen under the director of public works position.

The council also approved upping the salary paid to the city engineer by the Redevelopment Commission from $268 per month to $483 per month and the salary paid by the Water Reclamation Board from $515 biweekly to $707 biweekly. Those two salary hikes also must be approved by the respective boards. Velazquez chairs both those boards.

It will increase the director of public works/city engineer salary to $89,178 annually, about $7,500 more.

The city has been without an engineer since Jan. 1 and Velazquez said it has been a challenge filling the position. She said Tuesday night there is a lack of qualified applicants and a general shortage of engineers.

"We're in competition with the private sector, which is paying over $100,000 a year for engineers," she said.

Velazquez said the city employs only one engineer, which is an overall savings from each of the three departments having to employ separate engineers.

In other business, the council approved two ordinances involving fees paid to the Police Department for various services. Some of the fees are new, others are increases.

Fees will now include $10 for a vehicle inspection and $20 for the inspection of a vehicle for a salvage, garbage, taxi, dealership or commercial title. Those fees will be deposited in the department's vehicle inspection fund.

Other fees will include $10 for a case, accident or investigative report. If accident and investigative reports exceed 10 pages, there will be an additional 10 cents per page charged. Accident reconstruction reports will be $500. Fingerprinting fees will be $5 for residents and $20 for nonresidents with fees waived for children 17 years and younger and government entities. Background checks will be $10 with a waiver for government agencies. Impound fees will be $20 per vehicle.

All fees, except accident reports or photographs, will be deposited to the general fund with those two fees deposited into an accident report account.