Saturday, April 17, 2010

Green council rejects new job

Green council rejects new job

Green council rejects new job

Posted: 17 Apr 2010 12:46 AM PDT

GREEN: Plans to create a new administrative post in the city's Service Department are off — at least for now.

City Council voted this week 5-2 to reject Mayor Dick Norton and Service Director Randy Monteith's proposal to create one job to fill two vacant supervisory positions in the department.

Monteith had been sharing supervisory duties in part with Storm Water Superintendent Dan Haring, who retired in 2008, and Highway Department Superintendent Gene Hamilton, who left the city last year.

Councilman Dave France and Council President Bruce Manwaring voted in favor of
creating the post. Councilmen James Colopy, Anthony DeVitis and John Summerville voted against the plan, along with at-large members Joel Reed and Lynda Smole.

Aside from questions over the need of creating the position, some council members had questioned the use of a local firm to help fill the post.

Reed said he will introduce legislation that would regulate the use of search groups in the hiring of city employees.

Norton said the council's decision is ''certainly regrettable.''

Several council members had raised concerns, because the Windham Group, headed by Planning and Zoning Commission member Rick Jacobson, had been chosen by the mayor to handle the search process.

In a one-page letter to Norton on Tuesday, Jacobson terminated the contract effective immediately.

Jacobson wrote that he had learned that certain council members ''may be willing to withhold approval'' of plans to create the spot.

''While I have demonstrated the professional ability for years to locate and motivate talented people who do not generally apply to advertisements or postings, I believe this new position is far too valuable to jeopardize by appearances or innuendos,'' the letter continued.

Jacobson, who received $3,750 for services already rendered, offered to provide volunteer assistance if desired.

Colopy said the ''perception of impropriety is out there'' with the mayor hiring someone to conduct the search who serves on a city board and assisted in Norton's political campaign.

Norton said there was nothing wrong with hiring a local firm to conduct the search.

Law Director Stephen Pruneski said all the necessary steps were taken in selecting the search firm, and there was no impropriety involved.

Manwaring pointed out that council members didn't hesitate to spend $260,000 for restroom facilities at a Green park, but are ''wrestling with creating a management position to replace two positions, which is cost-effective.''

He said the new position would have an annual salary of about $70,000, while the two vacant positions had cost the city almost $200,000 in salary and benefits.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)