Lincoln City Council:
City will vacate the city administrator position May 1st

 

[March 27, 2021] 

At the Tuesday night Lincoln City Council Committee of the Whole, Acting Mayor Tracy Welch announced that he and the council have decided to vacate the city administrator position effective May 1st.

The current contract with Beth Kavelman will not be renewed, and the city will not seek to fill the position in the new fiscal year. The decision to vacate the position is at the discretion of the mayor and the council, but must go according to state guidelines. The state dictates that the position is to be filled or not, in alliance with the swearing in of the mayor every four years. The mayor has the discretion to decide whether or not he or she wishes to have a city administrator.

Welch, with the support of the council has decided that he does not want a city administrator, and wishes instead to return to what he referred to as a “hybrid” committee structure.

Welch said that the new committee structure would not resemble what the city used prior to hiring a city administrator. He said that for quite some time the city has utilized “teams” to explore issues within the city and report to the full council. The teams have been appointed as needed and have worked well.

The new structure will take this team structure and revamp it as a hybrid committee structure consisting of a few members of the council who will be focused on their assigned project, whether it be a group working with the mandated sewer upgrades, or a group focusing on technology, all will be expected to report their work to the full council.

City Attorney John Hoblit said that there would be no changes necessary to the city code because the council is not going to hire an administrator. He said the job title and description would remain in the books. At the same time, he noted that going back to a committee structure, under the Open Meetings Act will require that an agenda be drawn up for each committee meeting and that minutes of each meeting be taken and placed on the city record.

Welch also noted that in there will be situations when no committee is needed because a scenario or situation can be addressed more effectively by the full council.

Welch said the aldermen should consider hiring one or two people to work in an administrative/clerical role in city hall.

He suggested one full time person, who would be more of an administrative assistant and a second part time person, who would be more clerical/reception.

He said the goal was to have an office that was always manned with people capable of performing tasks for the council and meeting with visitors who come into the office. The part time person would be on hand to fill in the gaps when the full time person was absent attending meetings, out to lunch, or on a day off. He said he felt it was important for there to always be someone in the office that the public could talk to and the part time person would make that possible.

During the discussion of the change, Steve Parrott said he did have a few concerns. He noted that with a committee structure, there would be issues with work of the city interfering with aldermen’s professional careers. As an example, if the committee needs to meet, timing as to when everyone can be present will be an issue. Also, he said that if someone (consultants, professionals, contractors, etc.) needed to speak with an alderman on a committee during the alderman’s work day that could be a problem for the employer.

Parrott also wondered if it was necessary to hire two people. He thought the city could start with one person and see how it goes. Then, if a second person is needed that could be done later. He said that he understood the need for there to be someone accessible to the public all the time, but he wondered if city hall didn’t already have people who could do that.

Welch asked if Parrott was suggesting that the city clerk’s office fill the gap and Parrott said yes he was. Welch responded that he felt the clerk’s office had enough to do without taking on another task. Parrott responded that the clerk’s office has added staff over recent years. He noted specifically that a new person had been added when the city decided to do its own trash billing. However, that trash billing went away but the new person did not.

Parrott noted that constituents see the city hiring more and more people, but it is hard to justify it sometimes.

Welch said that he feels the majority of the public, and perhaps even the aldermen, do not fully understand the magnitude of work that passes through the clerk’s office. He noted that the sewer billing has changed, the clerk is responsible for permits, birth and death records, and much more.

Welch agreed that there had been changes made in staffing for the trash and that the trash billing had ultimately gone back to Area Disposal. However, he noted that at practically the same time, the sewer billing was transitioning from quarterly to monthly. That meant that the staff had gone to handling 4,000-plus monthly sewer bills, sending out the bills, taking the payments, recording etc.; all of which had added a tremendous amount of work for the staff. He concluded that the person hired for trash was well utilized and still very much needed after the trash went away.

City Treasurer Chuck Conzo added to that that the clerk staff has the enormous responsibility of managing accounts payable and receivables, as well as payroll. Conzo also noted that for many years the clerk’s office was terribly understaffed.

Ron Keller suggested that before the city try to decide this issue, aldermen should have a look at job descriptions for the two proposed positions. He felt that would help everyone to understand the scope of work that would be done in the absence of a city administrator.

Welch said that he would work to get job descriptions written up and the council could revisit the topic after that.

The topic appeared to be closed and the council moved on to looking at the proposed budget for the new year.

However, the matter of the clerk’s office soon came up again, as Kevin Bateman noted that within the budget, City Clerk Peggy Bateman had done an excellent job over the years cutting her budget. He noted that from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2022 the clerk's budget had been reduced by $20,000. He felt the clerk ran her office well.

Bateman said he felt that in the earlier discussion the clerk’s office had been “slammed” pretty hard and he didn’t think that was necessary.

Parrot responded to the comment saying he had not intended to slam the clerk’s office at all. He simply didn’t understand why the city should hire a part time staff member whose job would be to fill in for the full time person's absent days.

Bateman said that filling in on days off was not the point of hiring a second person. He said that second person would have job duties and would be on hand when the full time person had to attend meetings.

Welch brought the sidebar to a close and recommended that the council get back to the business at hand, which was reviewing the budget.

It is expected that the discussion on hiring one or two people to man an administrative office in city hall will be ongoing at future meetings of the city council.

[Nila Smith]