Yachats City Council wants to negotiate contract bringing Texas administrator to town as interim manager

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

The Yachats City Council decided Thursday to try to negotiate an interim city manager contract with a Texas man who has spent the last six years working in interim municipal government roles in Texas, Arkansas, Arizona and Oregon.

The council wants to bring Lee Elliott of Texarkana, Texas to Yachats as soon as possible to replace City Manager Shannon Beaucaire, whose last day in the office is Friday. Beaucaire, who will be available for the rest of the month for some meetings and phone consultation, is leaving Yachats after 3 1/2 years to become city manager in the Willamette Valley community of Carlton.

In choosing to go after Elliott, the council declined a last-minute application from a team consisting of Yachats’ first city manager, Joan Davies, and former finance consultant Tom Lauritzen to help run the city for 4-6 months.

The council said it was impressed with Elliott’s varied background – everything from running a human relations department to public works to being the top city officer – and his apparent ability to drop into almost any situation to help solve problems.

“I think there’s something to be said for fresh eyes,” Mayor Leslie Vaaler said Thursday during the council’s discussion.

The county spent two hours Wednesday interviewing Elliott and Bob Noble, the former manager of the Eugene airport who has a second home in Yachats. After receiving an application Tuesday from Davies and Lauritzen, it then interviewed them for another hour Thursday.

Elliott is working privately as a consultant now, after ending a seven-month job in February as interim public works director in the Texas-Mexico border town of Del Rio.

While Elliott told the council Tuesday that his specialty is parachuting in to interim roles, he would be interested in applying to be Yachats’ permanent city manager.

“Having been an interim helps. Having a diverse background helps,” he said. “The last six years of consulting and jumping around has earned me a doctorate in city government. The challenge is hitting the ground running. It’s something I’ve done well with.”

Elliott is familiar with Oregon after spending 2012-14 as assistant city manager and then interim city manager in Newberg. He told the council Tuesday he had been in Yachats “about five times” during that period where he “fell in love with Oregon.”

But Elliott also said he’d be interested in applying for the permanent job, with a fiancé who wants to move to Oregon and that his time of job-hopping may nearing an end.

“I love fixing situations,” he said. “The last six years have been amazing … but I would be interested in applying for the permanent position.”

Councilor Greg Scott said he called a few of Elliott’s references Wednesday in Texas, and said he got “very positive” responses on his dealings with staff and issues.

“The guy walks on water,” Scott said. “I couldn’t find any chinks in his armor.”

The council said it would begin by offering Elliott $7,000 a month and a $500 a month housing allowance as interim manager, but possibly having to pay some relocation costs. It authorized Vaaler and Scott to negotiate a contract and bring it back for full council approval.

Proposed a team approach

Before agreeing to pursue Elliott, the council had to decide whether to accept an offer from Davies and Lauritzen to work as a team to manage the city until a permanent manager is found.

The pair said Davies, who served as city manager from 2015-17 before retiring, would handle day-to-day operations while Lauritzen would focus on budget and finances, including moving away from a contract with Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments.

Lauritzen and Davies have worked together before, first when she was city manager and he was brought in to straighten out finances, then as consultants with the city of Hines in southeast Oregon, and now with KOHO Oregon as it transitions from an active development company to its homeowners association.

“We’ve worked together for four years,” Davies said. “We work well together.”

Lauritzen said they believe council needs to focus on finding a new city manager, to deal with CoG’s eventual departure and the hiring of a finance employee, and to prepare a 2021-22 budget by the end of June. He and Davies “would hold the fort down” while the council attacks those issues, Lauritzen said.

“This is where we can help,” he said. “I do know that time is our enemy” on all those issues.

Both said they would use a team approach to time-sensitive issues and projects, staffing, and in developing the upcoming budget.

“We offer something different,” Lauritzen said. “It’s … somewhat out of the box.”

Another advantage, Davies said, would their being able to start immediately with a good background in city issues and without a costly move.

“For us, we live here … and when you’re done, we’re done,” she said.

After agreeing to pursue Elliott, several council members said they hoped Lauritzen would offer his expertise on the city’s finances and accounting procedures.

In other business Thursday the council:

• Elected newly appointed council member Anthony Muirhead as council president after Councilor Ann Stott resigned the position last week. Stott had served two months in that position.
• Heard a complaint from Bob Bennett, a member of the city’s Public Works and Streets Commission, that the city needs to resume taking and posting written minutes of council and commission meetings. While posting audio recordings of long council or commission sessions on the city’s website meets the letter of the law, Bennett said, few people have the time, ability or willingness to wade through 3-4 hours of meetings.
• Appointed George Mazeika to the Parks & Commons Commission. Mazeika is a former manager of the Yachats Farmers Market, has organized various festivals in Yachats and Newport, works with the city’s Visitors Center and has a background in newspaper and book publishing.