By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
After failing to land a new city manager in a protracted and painful 10-month homemade search process, the Yachats City Council voted Thursday to seek outside, professional help to find a new administrator.
The unanimous vote came at the end of a five-hour meeting that included a hastily called executive session to discuss the failed recruitment and after Councilor Ann Stott said publicly that she no longer had confidence in Mayor Leslie Vaaler to lead the search.
The council’s continued turmoil comes when the deputy city recorder is out on extended leave, a contract facilities manager is working remotely from Seattle, a contract city hall aide is off for three days and councilors are openly worrying about the toll it is all taking on interim city manager/planner Katherine Guenther.
“I can’t remember being at a lower moment … we have failed in our responsibility to run the city effectively,” said Councilor Greg Scott.
Minutes into Thursday’s meeting, Stott invoked a procedural rule asking for an immediate executive (closed) session so the council could discuss the city manager search in private. During that 45-minute session councilors talked about what went wrong and what led its lone finalist, Gretchen Dubie of Yachats, withdrawing her application. Dubie’s withdrawal came after a contentious Dec. 16 meeting and 3-2 vote to send her a contract that the public saw before she ever did.
Once the council came out of executive session, it spent two hours wading through other issues before appearing to reach the end of the meeting. Only then did Vaaler offer a short apology to an online audience of more than 30 people on the failed recruitment.
“We took this very seriously,” she said of the search.
That’s when Stott jumped in to say the council was dysfunctional, that the city could not continue to operate with one beleaguered employee at City Hall, that she said she had no confidence in Vaaler’s ability to lead, and they should hire a professional search firm.
The council last spring decided it did not want hire a search firm so it could control the process and save the estimated $20,000 a search firm would charge. Some councilors and city volunteers now believe that Yachats has such a poor reputation that it will struggle to attract good candidates.
“During the past three weeks I have agonized about the dysfunction and failures of this council,” Stott said. “I find it difficult to understand how we can continue business as usual when we have only one highly overworked employee in the city offices today. While council rules do not include a clause allowing a vote of no confidence by council, I feel I have no choice but to offer my own vote of no confidence in Mayor Vaalor’s leadership.”
Scott then made a motion to adjourn the meeting.
That drew a rebuke from Councilor Anthony Muirhead, who objected to two councilors being able to air their criticisms without others being able to talk – and without the council making a decision on its next move.
“We’ve made mistakes. The mayor has made mistakes,” Muirhead said. “But we owe the community some direction rather than not talk about it. We’re leaving the community in the dark and it does not sit well with me.”
Vaaler said she “heard” Stott’s vote of no confidence and “I have heard other criticism.”
“No one is more critical of me than I am,” she said, recounting sleepless nights following the failed city manager search.
Stott countered by reminding Vaaler of a meeting they had prior to launching their council and mayoral campaigns 18 months ago where they talked about their strengths and weaknesses. She said Vaaler has “constricted” council communication and lacks the skills necessary to effectively lead the group.
Only then, as the fifth hour of the meeting approached, did the council return to the search process.
It voted unanimously to have Vaaler and Stott – who was elected council president earlier in the meeting – investigate what two well-known municipal search firms would do for Yachats and bring a recommendation back to its Jan. 19 meeting.
“If you can agree someone is good, I’d be ready to vote on it at the next meeting,” Muirhead said.
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What I failed to say in yesterday’s council meeting is the primary reason for my pessimism is the need to resolve the difference in opinions about which qualities in an applicant are most important. These are strongly held beliefs and until we bridge this divide, I do not see a way forward that will result in a positive outcome. I understand this is not obvious to most people because these differences have not surfaced in public discussion.
What a cluster. I would like to know what theses beliefs are that are being hidden from the public (tax payers) and how it led to this mess. Do they have anything to do with the job at hand?
Why would a community of less than 1,000 residents even need a city manager? Electing city officials with a vision for growth while staying true to our community’s values would be a far better solution than hiring some “gunfighter” from out of town.
Vaaler says no one is more critical of her than herself. I believe what she meant to say is no one is more impressed with herself. A wonderful candidate for city manager gone, and only one person to blame. The city slowly being ruined. Voting has consequences.
Do not hire an interim city manager “gunfighter” from out of town, Tex-R-Cana, or Tim-Buck-Too. That’s not a good idea from the “get-go”. You’ve got an elected mayor. Get behind her, support her, back her up, and keep the positive action of Yachats rolling. Keep it simple. That’s my motto. At least try. If I can be of any service, let me know.
In theory a professional city manager, untethered from political considerations, would simply administer the city in concert with established law and policy. But if the position of city manager is co-oped by political personalities and political considerations, then there is no point in having a city manager.
Take, for example, code enforcement. Code enforcement should be a neutral administrative function. But in Yachats, the text of our municipal code has less weight than the political personalities and political considerations of local office holders, and our last city manager didn’t have the requisite independence to reject those pressures. In my opinion, we haven’t had reliable city administration in Yachats in many years — just politics and personalities. If the position of city manager itself becomes a political football, fraught with warring factions seeking more control over city administration, then we will continue to live by no particular set of rules at all.
The thing is, using a professional search firm only gets someone to the same place it will get someone done by the city. As long as the council can’t figure out their own house before hiring someone, the end result will be the same. And they are not looking for someone with municipal experience who can help them navigate council/city relationships. A professional search firm will not do that either. It’s a shame, really, but the blame should not be on the mayor’s shoulders alone. Both Stott and Scott should take the blame because I don’t think they themselves really know what they should be looking for, what the city needs. And Councilor Muirhead who has hiring experience was much too silent.