City cancels vote on city administrator position

[May 23, 2018] 

LINCOLN 

At the Monday evening meeting of the Lincoln City Council there was no vote taken on whether or not to hire a new city administrator.

The reason was the position of city administrator is an appointed position by the sitting mayor.

On Monday evening, Mayor Seth Goodman said that because this was an appointed position, the council did not need to vote, he would state that at this time, there will be no appointment to the currently vacant position.

At the last committee of the whole meeting, held Tuesday May 15th, aldermen had discussed whether or not to eliminate the position. To eliminate the position would have required a vote by the council, but it would also have required a change in city ordinance and code. Aldermen did not want to eliminate the position all together, as they discussed altering the job description and/or making the position part time.

Early in the evening Monday, during the public participation portion of the agenda, one persona came forward to speak about the CA position. He stated that he no longer lives in the city, but can see town from his house. He said that he felt the city should hire a CA. He noted that the aldermen and mayor all had other obligations in addition to their commitment to the city. He said that he felt that the city needed one person whose full time job was to look after the town. The gentleman noted that the city has a sizeable budget, and the city administration has a lot of responsibility. He felt it would be good for the aldermen, the mayor, and the department heads to have a good go-to person who was always available.

There is an expectation that there will be further discussion on this matter in the future. The aldermen, in general, agree with the speaker Monday night, that the city does need some type of administrative personnel, but the question is what do they really need and want.

There has been one proposal to create a new position for an administrative assistant that would consist of a slightly lower skill set and a re-defined job description. Some aldermen feel that creating such a position could open the door to someone more local to the area, and also someone who was more willing to work for the dollars the city has available in the budget.

For this fiscal year, the city has $70,000 for a city administrator, which is on the low end of what most qualified applicants will accept.

According to municipal code in the state of Illinois, a city administrator is to be appointed by the mayor with advice and consent of his council or board. The term on the city administrator runs in conjunction with the term of the mayor and thus, is subject to re-appointment every four years, at the discretion of the mayor.

[Nila Smith]