By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Yachats City Council will seek an interim city manager until it figures out how and who to replace Shannon Beaucaire, who is leaving within two months to take the same job in the Willamette Valley community of Carlton.
Mayor Leslie Vaaler mentioned during an online Monday workshop meeting that two local residents might be interested in an interim position – Kerry Kemp, who retired last April as Waldport’s city manager, and Bob Noble, who worked for the city of Eugene for 30 years, the last seven as manager of its airport before retiring in 2007.
Beaucaire’s contract required her to give 60 days notice of leaving – taking her to April 2 — but has 22 days of sick and vacation time to either be used or paid out. Vaaler said Beaucaire has told her “multiple times that she wants to make this transition work.”
Council members said they should draw up a job description and advertise the interim job to see what kind of candidate it might attract.
Finding a permanent city manager will be a more involved and lengthy process, councilors agreed.”We need to spend some quality time in this process,” said Councilor Greg Scott.
Vaaler said the council should talk to city staff, community members and follow a process outlined by the League of Oregon Cities. But the mayor and councilors were non-committal about hiring an outside search firm to consult, advertise and screen initial applicants.
Whether the council uses a consultant, Vaaler said, depends on how much time and work members want to do themselves, possibly with the help of some volunteers.
“I’d like to see someone with a local commitment to stay … and we’re not doing this again in three years,” she said.
Scott said a deeper discussion about council expectations for a city manager “could guide our thinking” on whether to use a search firm or try to do it themselves.
During that later discussion about expectations, Councilor Ann Stott said Beaucaire’s contract was too restrictive and too detailed – specifying 81 tasks the manager should be doing.
“… there are things in this document that I question whether we want the city manager to be doing,” Stott said.
She said she felt frustrated by Beaucaire’s contract and city charter that drew very specific lines of authority and policy-making under the city manager/council form of government. While acknowledging a lot of discussion the past three years to keep the council out of daily administration, Stott said she felt that prohibited the council from stepping in when it saw something it didn’t like.
Vaaler and Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey disagreed, saying the mayor and council president have regular contact with the city manager and can bring up issues in public or private meetings.
“There are paths,” Vaaler said.
O’Shaughnessey said she supports the city manager/council form of government, but that constant change among the council slows acceptance and progress.
“We haven’t been at this very long …” she said. “Much of what Shannon brought was good. But we need something that can survive changes in the council. It takes patience on all our parts.”
Scott said he thought the next city manager’s the contract should be “substantially altered” to be more general, more flexible and simpler.
Two other positions as well
The council also discussed how to deal with a transition in handling city finances, moving away from contracting with Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments to hiring someone in house. The issue is also complicated by the city’s 2021-22 budget process starting soon.
Scott suggested the city appoint Tom Lauritzen, who had consulted on city finances previously, as budget officer to guide the budget process while the council sorts out interim and permanent city managers and hires a finance employee. Lauritzen has been critical of CoG’s work the past two years and the structure of the city manager’s budget. Councilors seemed intrigued with that idea, but made no commitments
The council did ask O’Shaughnessey and Lauritzen to interview the 3-4 people now handling finances, look at the job description for the previous finance director, and make suggestions.
The council also wants to hire or contract with a new city planner to replace contractors for the Council of Governments, but has struggled over how to proceed. It decided this week to try to get a job description together to look at during its meeting Wednesday, Jan. 17, and begin advertising – it did not say where – before the end of the month. The Council of Governments is currently providing planning services, but now doing it all remotely with no one coming to the city 1-2 days a week.
Good! I am sure someone who doesn’t require the salary and raises this one did will be a better fit in Yachats.