By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Yachats City Manager Shannon Beaucaire has developed a new staffing and employee structure for City Hall, proposing to add one employee to handle community service duties and a second to be an administrative assistant.
The plan is more than a year in the making.
Beaucaire said it involved interviews with current staff and contractors, looking at how other small- and medium-sized cities are organized, and with an eye to stay within the current city budget but also be flexible enough to adapt as the city changes.
Beaucaire’s plan would still rely on contractors for some duties such as finance, planning, code enforcement and information technology. It could reduce the overall number of other contractors in the office, however.
Both new positions would be members of the Oregon chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, which covers non-management Yachats employees.
Funding for both positions had previously been authorized by the City Council during budget work in 2018 and 2019 but had been left unfilled until Beaucaire developed the staffing plan.
One re-named position would be a deputy recorder, who would oversee elections, work with the City Council and city commissions, handle utility billing, licenses, taxes and records management. That person would also work with a finance person currently provided under contract with the Albany-based Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments.
There would also be a public works coordinator to handle water, wastewater, streets, storm drains, maintenance and short- and long-term projects.
Both of those positions would likely be filled from within current staff.
Beaucaire said the new position of community service coordinator would be “outward looking” overseeing facilities, projects and working with contractors, including the Council of Governments, on planning, information technology and code enforcement. That person would be a union member, the city manager said.
Beaucaire has been working with human resource managers at the council of governments to develop a multi-page job description. Salary range would be $47,000 to $69,000 a year. She hopes to begin advertising that position next week and have hired someone by April.
The second new position would be an administrative assistant, providing support to the city manager, the deputy recorder and the public works and community services coordinators. It too would be a union position with a pay range of $39,000 to $50,000.
Beaucaire hopes to advertise that job in April and fill it by June.
Code enforcement in flux
Beaucaire is still trying to figure out how to handle code enforcement duties, balancing some community desires for active enforcement with the seasonal nature of much of the job. The position is currently filled by Matt Phillips, who is working up to 20 hours a week through an employment agency. But he has given notice he is leaving Feb. 14.
Beaucaire has asked TCB Patrol Services of Newport to develop a proposal for code enforcement. It currently provides code enforcement for the city of Toledo and handles the city of Yachats’ after-hours phone calls.
Bueaucaire told the city’s Planning Commission on Tuesday that she interviewed TCB managers last week “and was pleasantly surprised.” She has asked the company to come back with a proposal for Yachats, explaining how it will work in the community.
Beaucaire said TCB can offer someone to do the routine code enforcement work but also offers a 24/7 response to complaints.
“They offer more options” than we currently have,” she said.
But, Beaucaire said, because of Phillips mid-February departure “parts of the TCB plan maybe implemented in the short term.”
Some Planning Commission members pushed back, saying they preferred a full-time year-round code enforcement officer not only to respond to complaints, but to anticipate issues and help the commission with enforcement of parking, lighting and other issues.
“You know we disagree with you, right?” asked commission chair Helen Anderson.
“Yes,” Beaucaire said.
Commissioner Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey, who has been critical in the past of gaps in code enforcement, said she views the position as someone who does more than respond to complaints.
“I see this person as someone who can educate our community,” said O’Shaughnessey. “I really see a proactive person working with our small businesses and residents to educate them before something happens.”
Beaucaire agreed on the dual reactive/educational role of code enforcement, but said there just is not enough evidence to justify a full-time employee to do that.
There has also been a longer-term discussion going on about paying the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office to handle code enforcement for Yachats, Waldport and other small Lincoln County cities; but anything from that discussion could be more than a year or two away.
Planning plan is under way
There is already a plan under way to transition to a new contracted city planner.
For years the one-day-a-week planner was Larry Lewis, who also worked in Waldport and Depoe Bay. Lewis retired from Yachats in December 2018 and was replaced by Dave Mattison of Tillamook.
Yachats, Waldport and Toledo have now worked out an agreement with the council of governments to have the agency hire a planner to work two days in Yachats, two days in Waldport and one day in Toledo. The agency began advertising for that job last week.
That planner would be supplemented as needed by Justin Peterson, a COG planner from Albany currently helping Yachats and the other cities.
Beaucaire said he hopes to have the new planner on board by April. Mattison and Peterson are handling planning duties until then.