A strong candidate for city administrator gets council talking

 

[July 12, 2018] 

LINCOLN 

After an hour of regular business at the Tuesday night Lincoln City Council Committee of the Whole, aldermen went into executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel.

While the discussions taking place in executive session are not for publication, the after conversations made it clear that aldermen had discussed filling the position of city administrator with a specific candidate.

Following the executive session aldermen went back on public record to discuss some of the details of the job description, debate the salary, and whether or not the position would remain a full-time position.

After about one hour, Mayor Seth Goodman asked that a motion be placed on the voting agenda for next week seeking “advice and consent” to the appointment of a full time city administrator with a starting salary of $50,000 per year.

Michelle Bauer said she felt the position could be filled with this particular candidate based on the current job description.

However, Steve Parrott had concerns about the salary and wondered if the position should be offered as a part-time position so as to reduce the salary. He said that the job description could be modified. Parrott has concerns about the longevity of the employees that have been hired to this position in the past.

Bauer said she was not that concerned about the longevity and didn’t think the council should be worried about that. She said there is never going to be a guarantee that a person isn’t going to leave, and the city shouldn’t expect there to be.

Some of the discussion examined how past city administrators have been a benefit to the city, if there has been economic growth.

Ron Keller said that he had spent time considering this and looking at the tasks that had been performed by former City Administrator Clay Johnson, it was clear that he had been involved with projects that added up to more than $500,000 to the good for the city. Keller said based on that, he felt that the City Administrator could more than pay for him/herself in economic benefits to the city.

Keller also asked Parrott to expand on his objection to a full-time position, was the concern money?

Parrott said that much of his concern was based on money. He noted that the city has had to implement increases in wages for all employees and that it is a strain on the budget to grow wages when the city itself is not gaining any revenues.

Mayor Goodman spoke up saying that he felt that the reason the city is not growing is due at least in part to the fact that there is no one working full time to promote Lincoln. He gets calls, he knows people are interested in Lincoln, but they don’t have a starting point for coming here.

He said as mayor he has to be careful not to cross lines that would overlap with his profession. A city administrator could do a better job of promoting the city and its properties without those worries of conflict of interest.

Goodman added that when he ran for office, he ran with the understanding that he was going to have a city administrator.

Bauer said the city was indeed missing out on economic development opportunities without the administrator. She concluded that at the moment, “we are not doing anything to help ourselves.” She said a city administrator would help assure there is economic development, would improve communication and transparency with the public, would oversee the finances and maintain a watch on the budget.

Parrott asked if anyone could say how much was actually accomplished in the area of economic development with the city administrator.

Jeff Hoinacki said that economic development was not a “cut and dried” situation, so it was hard to tell. He said that economic development comes from building and maintaining good relationships and is not just about bringing in new business, but also keeping business.

Bauer said there was evidence. She noted the new McDonalds, the new St. Clara’s Rehab and Senior Care, and a number of brand new businesses to the community such as the Cricket phone store and more.

Goodman noted that right now with no Chamber of Commerce, people who are interested in coming to Lincoln really aren’t getting any help on even figuring out where to start.

Goodman voiced his desire for a full time person saying, “You can’t pay for part time effort and get full time results.”

Parrott then asked if someone could point out the section on economic development in the administrator job description.

It was noted that there is only a vague reference to economic development in section six of the job description. Parrott said that if economic development is part of the job, then it should be spelled out more completely in the job description.

Bauer said that the city administrator would not necessarily be the person in charge of economic development, but that the administrator would be a leader and a visionary who would help steer the city and get it moving forward. Parrott said that might have worked when there were other economic entities, but currently there are none.

Tracy Welch agreed and asked how the city administrator would handle that. There is no chamber, there is no Main Street program. He went on to say that he agreed with Parrott, there needed to be a reduction in the estimated $70,000 per year salary either by going to a part-time position or by offering less for a starting salary.

In regard to the job description, Welch said he felt this particular candidate would be qualified to assist the city in fine tuning the job description after hired.

He also noted that there are big issues in the city clerk’s office and that the city is going to have to be looking for new software to handle the situation with the billing for sewer and trash. He said the clerk’s office “is drowning.”

Welch went on to say that in regard to the job description, Goodman has said he doesn’t want to have a city administrator who can run over the mayor and city council, but that the job description in place now allows for that, so yes, there has to be some changes made.

Welch concluded that he also felt that the spending authority given to the city administrator was way too high. He feels that the administrator should not be permitted to spend up to $20,000 without permission from the council, so that too needs to be changed.

Bauer said in that case aldermen need to put the job description on a workshop agenda and go through it line by line. She concluded that a job offer could not be extended to the candidate without a job description.

Welch disagreed saying this particular candidate could help the city fine tune the description so that it worked out well for everyone.

Parrott, drawing on the comment about the city clerk’s office, said that hiring a city administrator to help the city clerk was the wrong reason for hiring.

Keller said it wasn’t so much about helping the clerk as helping to improve the situation in the clerk’s office, and being a leader in making the right changes.

Earlier in the evening, Fire Chief Mark Miller had told the council that the city has made an offer for the vacant property to the east of the fire house. Now he told the aldermen that the task had been a bigger challenge because there was no city administrator. It had left Miller in a position of having to figure out something that is not necessarily in his wheelhouse.

He added that the past city administrator had implemented the department head meetings, had helped improved the relationships and communications between the departments and had made it a better working environment for everyone.

Heidi Browne said she felt that the city needed to hire the candidate and that the candidate could help develop the job description.

City Clerk Peggy Bateman said that this particular candidate has knowledge and education that will be valuable to the city, but is also the type of person who won’t walk away when she sees others are struggling. She said yes, it is not the administrator’s job to help in the clerk’s office, but this person is one who will pitch in and do it anyway when she sees the office is struggling.

Bateman said that the billing for the sewer and trash combined, and the switch to monthly billing has been a nightmare for her department. She said it was no one person’s fault, it was everyone’s fault including her own for not thinking it through a bit more before committing to combining the sewer and trash. And yes, the software was supposed to handle it, but it has failed.

Hoinacki said he felt the city needed to expedite hiring a new administrator, and work on the job description after the fact.

Goodman said he wanted to be clear on what the council was doing. He wanted verification that working on the description after the fact would not ultimately eliminate the position. He noted that the person who is interested is going to be making some big life changes to do so. Goodman said he didn’t want to hire the candidate then three months from now have the position disappear.

Keller said he felt that the big hang up at the moment was the question of full time or part time.

Bauer said to put it on the agenda for full time and let the council vote yay or nay.

Parrott said that if the city does go with part time he wants to assure that it is part time. He doesn’t want the person to be told 30 hours a week and expected to do more.

Conzo said that he felt that the administrator position is a leadership position and that hours worked cannot be defined. As a city leader, the administrator will be “expected to do what is needed.”

Bauer agreed and said even by the job description the administrator is to be involved in civic and community events, so a 40-hour-week is not always a 40 hour week.

She added that she still believes that the position has to be a full time, salaried position with benefits. She concluded, “You get value by giving value.”

Welch said he would suggest a full time offer paying $50,000, with a performance evaluation at 90 days or six months.

Welch asked Ron Fleshman if he had any opinions on the matter. Fleshman said that he felt the city should be careful to not be too restrictive in the job description. He believes the city needs a full time person. He added that the city can’t afford to miss opportunities, and it has. He said there are times when the city has taken too long to reach a decision because the council didn’t have any guidance or assistance.

He concluded that in the end what it all comes down to, is that the job offer will come from the mayor, and will be the mayors decision, the council can only offer ‘consent.”

As the discussions came to an end, it was agreed that the agenda item for next week would be to offer the candidate the position as full time and with a beginning salary of $50,000.

As always, the council may modify the motion or table it next week if they feel they are not prepared to make an informed decision.

[Nila Smith]