Manager - Gas Services

Long Beach Utilities Manager Of Gas Services

Ideally located on the Pacific Ocean south of Los Angeles, adjacent to Orange County, the City of Long Beach, California (population 470,000) is frequently described as a series of strong, diverse interwoven smaller communities within a large city. Enjoying an ideal Southern California climate, Long Beach is home to an abundance of cultural and recreational options. The Long Beach Convention Center, Aquarium of the Pacific, Queen Mary, and the annual Penske Grand Prix of Long Beach, plus a wide variety of other attractions (two historic ranchos, three marinas, and five golf courses), serve to draw 6.5 million visitors a year.

The City is also home to California State University, Long Beach, and Long Beach City College. Cal State Long Beach is the second largest university in the state and was recently ranked the No. 3 best–value public college in the nation. Covering approximately 50 square miles, Long Beach is supported by a wide mix of industries with education, health and social services, manufacturing, retail trade, and professional services comprising the highest representation.

Known for its livable and desirable neighborhoods, Long Beach was named by America's Promise Alliance as one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People two years in a row. While it offers all the amenities of a large metropolis, many say Long Beach offers the added benefit of having maintained a strong sense of community and cohesiveness despite its growth.

A superb climate, quality schools, a vibrant downtown, and a wide variety of neighborhoods help make Long Beach one of the most livable communities in the country.

Long Beach Utilities provides safe, clean, reliable and affordable water, gas, and sewer services to the Long Beach community. The service area supports 500,000 customers, represented by 90,000 water accounts, 153,000 gas accounts and 90,000 sewer accounts in 52 square miles. This service area includes Long Beach's downtown core, waterfront accounts, suburban areas and dense multifamily portions of the region. The department also provides natural gas service to residents and businesses in the City of Signal Hill.

Water. Every day, Long Beach Utilities treats 32 million gallons of drinking water at the Long Beach Groundwater Treatment Plant (GWTP) and distributes this water after blending with imported water, to 90,000 households and businesses throughout the City of Long Beach. The GWTP also hosts a California Environmental Laboratory Accreditation as a Certified Water Quality Laboratory, which performs 60,000 to 70,000 water quality tests per year to ensure the high quality of the drinking water.

Gas. As a municipal utility, Long Beach Utilities' natural gas rates and policies are established by the Board of Utilities Commission, consisting of five residents of Long Beach. The City Charter requires Long Beach rates to be comparable to the rates charged by surrounding gas utilities for similar types of service. In the region, the Southern California Gas Company is the only other natural gas utility providing similar service and serves as the market benchmark.

The City of Long Beach natural gas service territory includes the cities of Long Beach and Signal Hill, and sections of surrounding communities including Lakewood, Bellflower, Compton, Seal Beach, Paramount, and Los Alamitos.

Sewer. Long Beach Utilities owns, operates and maintains over 700 miles of sanitary sewer lines, safely collecting and delivering over 32 million gallons of wastewater per day to the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County for treatment.

Under the direction of the Director of Gas Services, the Manager of Gas Services is responsible for directing the operations of the Gas Services Bureau including gas control and dispatching operations, customer service field operations, emergency field response, training, safety, and the installation and repair of residential gas meter set assemblies.

• Provides oversight for Gas Services operations including: repair and installation of residential and industrial gas meters, district regulators, and telemetry equipment; customer service field operations; emergency leak response; dispatch operations; operator qualification program; and safety compliance.
• Manages daily operations for the Gas Services Bureau, including employee work schedules, task assignments, and leave management.
• Oversees all gas customer service activities, ensuring efficient and timely completion of field activities, while enforcing compliance with safety and federal regulations (OSHA/DOT-PHMSA).
• Identifies issues concerning Gas Services operations to ensure maintenance work and meter installation projects are performed on schedule, within budget, and in compliance with safety best practices and federal regulations.
• Provides organizational leadership to the Gas Services Bureau regarding staff training and evaluation, compliance with Department and City policies and procedures,…