Pittsburgh has laid off its traffic engineer, an essential position, and could end up spending more to have his work done by a private consultant.

"The cost doesn't necessarily have to be higher, because the consultant doesn't have to be on duty full time. But suffice to say, generally speaking people in the private sector make more than people in the public sector," said Fred Reginella, director of engineering and construction.

For the time being, the city has no one qualified to do basic tasks like changing the timing on a traffic signal.

When the city laid off workers last year amid its budget crisis, it did so based on seniority.

Darryl Phillips had been with the city for 10 years, but there were eight people with more seniority in the city's Department of Engineering and Construction.

Because Phillips' was the only one licensed to do many tasks related to traffic in the city, the city skipped him on the seniority list, Reginella said.

Employees with more seniority objected, and took their case to the Civil Service Commission, which ordered the city to lay off Phillips, Reginella said. He was let go Jan. 16.

Phillips, spending time as an unexpected stay-at-home dad with his 2-month-old daughter, said the layoff was unexpected.

"It really came as a shock. In August, there were a number of people scheduled to be laid off by department, and based on strict seniority I was part of that group."

But because there was no one else trained to do his job, he was kept on. He knew that the case was being appealed "but I hadn't heard anything for several months and assumed that whatever had been decided was in my favor. I found out officially the morning of the 16th, but I had heard from the director the day before that it was probably going to happen."

"Darryl was the victim of our economic down-scaling," said Reginella. "I and the assistant directors can take over some duties, but issues that require the expertise of a traffic engineer we wouldn't touch with the proverbial 10-foot pole. We're registered engineers, but we're not qualified in the traffic discipline."

Phillips said that although only three states have separate programs to register traffic engineers, in Pennsylvania both the state and the Registered Professional Engineers' code of ethics mandate that engineers not practice outside their area of expertise.

"I was the only [professional engineer] that had extensive experience in traffic," he said.

Reginella said the city cannot operate without a traffic engineer. "Take traffic signals as an example. In order for us to alter timing at a traffic light, change the cycles, only a traffic engineer has the authority by law to do that. At the moment there isn't anybody here to do that."

Phillips is the only one qualified to conduct traffic safety and engineering studies and to make decisions on many traffic-related issues.

"What it means is that for a few days, there are certain things we are not able to do," Reginella said.

The city is in the process of hiring a consulting firm that would provide traffic engineering services. Reginella said there is more than one contender and that he didn't yet know how much it might cost, or whether it will be more expensive than Phillips' salary, which was about $60,000.