By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Yachats City Council gave City Manager Shannon Beaucaire the go-ahead Thursday to advertise for an administrative assistant position now being filled by a temporary contractor.
But after nearly 45 minutes of questions and discussion, the council said two other employees that Beaucaire is asking to hire – for finance and planning – would have to wait until a new council is seated in January.
The employment issue is one of many the current council has decided – or been asked – to leave for a new mayor and two new councilors who will join one current holdover in January. All three – Mayor-elect Leslie Vaaler and councilors-elect Ann Stott and Greg Scott – ran on platforms questioning many city spending or management decisions.
Beaucaire’s proposal to advertise for three positions was on Thursday’s workshop agenda because Vaaler, Stott, Scott and Councilor Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey asked for more details and a more thorough discussion than when Beaucaire initially proposed them Nov. 18.
The administrative assistant work is currently being done by Anita Sites, whom the city pays via a labor contractor.
But the city’s contract with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees says such temporary, contract jobs can only be filled for six months out of 12, unless the union agrees to extend the time. Sites’ six months is up Dec. 15, Beaucaire told the council.
The salary range for the position would be $39,000 to $50,500 a year, under the proposed job description. Depending on the salary level, Beaucaire told Vaaler, the total cost to the city could be as high as $84,000 a year once a range of fringe benefits and retirement contributions are added.
Vaaler throughout the discussion expressed reluctance to advertise the position, wanting to see how or if other parts of what she called personnel “puzzles” might fit once the new council begins discussing them next year.
Others, including O’Shaughnessey, Mayor John Moore and Councilors Max Glenn and Jim Tooke said it was clear the position was needed at City Hall and that Beaucaire should proceed with advertising for it. In the end, Vaaler also agreed.
Several times during the personnel discussion, Glenn pointed out that the administrative assistant position was in the 2020-21 budget that had been approved by the Budget Committee and City Council last June. He also pointed out that the city charter gives the city manager authority to make hiring decisions.
“I’m having trouble with this discussion,” Glenn said.
But Moore said the council needed to discuss them because while the administrative assistant position had been approved in the budget, the other two proposals – finance and planning – would involve moving from contracted services to full-time city employees.
Struggle with finance, planning
And it was over those two positions that the current council decided to let the new council wrestle with.
In a memo accompany proposed advertising and job descriptions, Beaucaire said she had been encouraged in her three annual evaluations to “add members to the team” and had developed an organization structure “that supports team development, respects the small size of our community and the multiple hats we all have to wear, supports partnerships to maximize shared resources, and provides succession planning and training.”
Beaucaire said the finance person would replace administrative services now provided by the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments. While the city has contracted with the regional agency for 1½ years and Beaucaire has been a strong advocate for their services, she said they were never intended to be a long-term solution and that it was time to bring the position back in-house.
The planning position has been a more difficult situation.
The city has struggled to find a part-time planner since the retirement of a longtime contract planner two years ago. A recent agreement with the council of governments to split a planner between Yachats and Waldport fell apart after three months when that planner left to become a part-time city of Waldport employee.
CoG planner Justin Peterson, who also works in Toledo and Sweet Home, has helped in the past and is filling in again, but Beaucaire says CoG has told her that is not a long-term solution. She recently approached the Lane Council of Governments about contracting a part-time planner through them but has not heard back.
The CoG contract calls for the city to pay $6,100 a month for 20 hours a week of planning services, Beaucaire said, but CoG wants to pare that back.
In her council memo, Beaucaire said in addition to typical planning duties, a full-time planner could also work on projects the city has struggled to manage, including water security, transportation, affordable housing and helping with public involvement.
Not in Beaucaire’s current personnel proposal or discussed Thursday was a position in the 2020-21 budget to hire a public works director, if city revenue from lodging and food and beverage taxes came in better than expected. According to taxes the city has received for July, August and September the revenue is much higher than expected.
Waiting until next year
And that’s where the members of the council who will be sitting in January said they needed more information from Beaucaire and more discussion among themselves.
Stott and Scott said in November that it was improper for the current council to consider hiring the two new positions, even though Scott advocated in his election campaign that the city needed to return to having its own finance director.
Vaaler and O’Shaughnessey said they simply needed more information, especially about the costs, and a chance for the new council to more deeply discuss overall operations and staffing.
“It’s a major change and a major financial decision,” O’Shaughnessey, asking for more details and more data on cost tradeoffs. She said she is generally in favor of hiring a financial director “and being done with CoG” but said it would also need a lot of council work next year.
Vaaler said she would like to bring in the Planning Commission to hear its views – one member is an outspoken advocate for a full-time planner but the rest have been skeptical.
In the end, only the administrative assistant position was approved to be advertised. Late Thursday afternoon a job posting notice went onto the city’s website.