Yachats council authorizes city manager to negotiate higher salary for potential office employee after initial job offer rejected

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

The Yachats City Council resumed its public thrashing around Wednesday over hiring a former contractor to handle some bookkeeping and administrative functions at City Hall after she turned down a job offer that contained a council-mandated salary that she considered too low.

But after another discussion, the council voted unanimously to authorized interim City Manager Katherine Guenther to see if she can negotiate a salary with Anita Sites in the $55,000 to $62,000 range – a salary initially in the job description approved by the council months ago.

During a special meeting last week, the council approved Guenther offering a bookkeeping/administrative assistant job to Sites, but decided on the spot that the salary had to be $48,600.

Normally job offers and salaries would be solely under the authority of a city manager. But since the departure of Shannon Beaucaire in April, the council has stipulated in the contracts of two interim managers that they need council permission to hire and set salaries.

Sites, who worked for a year as an administrative assistant under an employment contract before it was terminated in early June, turned down the city’s offer Monday.

In an email (below) to Guenther and the council that was read into the record Wednesday by Councilor Greg Scott, Sites said she was initially thinking of taking the offer, then listened to a recording of the council’s 90-minute discussion of her perceived abilities and the job last week.

“While the initial salary budgeted wasn’t ideal for me … I was willing to be open and objective on being offered within those parameters plus the opportunity for growth,” Sites said. “However, after hearing the council meeting, there is so much to be concerned about as it was problematic at best.”

Councilors did not react after Scott finished reading the email, instead proceeding with other council business for the next three hours. Only at the meeting’s end, during her city manager report, did Guenther bring up that the offer to Sites fell through and she would be alone in the office again Thursday and Friday when deputy city recorder Kimmie Jackson was off.

“It’s not working,” she told the council, saying once again that phones will go unanswered the rest of the week. “I need to do something, but I don’t know what that looks like. We’re just not making it.”

Where once it had five employees or contractors in City Hall, there have been just two since June after two departures in late May. Tom Lauritzen of Yachats handled finances under a contract for 13 weeks but left in July after there was no movement to hire someone to replace him.

Guenther, who started in March as a 16-hour-a-week city planner, was name interim city manager in May shortly before the departure of Lee Elliott, who held the job for three months. She has repeatedly told the council that she’s busy learning both jobs and that city hall needs more staff – but until two weeks ago neither she nor the council posted any jobs.

Guenther said Wednesday that Sites had concerns over the salary, a long-term commitment to her under a new city manager, and the council’s statements last week about her lack of accounting or bookkeeping experience.

That set off a series of questions about whether the Guenther could negotiate a salary with Sites, if the council gave her that leeway.

Scott told the council that the position is a two-day-a week bookkeeping job and three days a week doing everything from answering the phones to updating the city’s website to helping customers to publishing the monthly newsletter.

“This particular individual is exceedingly qualified,” Scott said, with a business degree and a “capacity and willingness to learn.”

Scott said Sites wants to hear from the council that she is valued, respected and that it wants her to be a city employee.

“An apology will go a long way to healing these wounds,” he said. “This woman has been wounded.”

Councilor Anthony Muirhead, who initially opposed the hiring because he wanted someone with accounting experience, said he changed his opinion once Guenther finally made it clear it was a bookkeeping position overseen by an outside financial adviser.

“This is why we need a city manager to handle hiring,” he said of the painful, confusing and convoluted process handled by the council. “There’s a reason we have a city manager so we don’t have these types of public discussions where people get their feelings hurt.”

With that, the council voted unanimously to authorize Guenther to negotiate Sites’ hiring within the advertised salary range.

The last two council meetings were chaotic, contentious and disorganized, and as a result at one time had 45 participants in Wednesday’s online meeting that lasted 3 1/2 hours.

In other business Wednesday, the council:

• Appointed Catherine Whitten Carey, a former school administrator, to the Parks & Commons Commission;
• Approved requests by the Public Works and Streets Commission to study pedestrian safety issues along U.S. Highway 101 between Ocean View Drive and the Yachats River bridge, and to study street lights in the city to see if they can be added to, removed or adjusted in any way;
• Heard an update from Mayor Leslie Vaaler that Yachats Youth and Family Activities Program is willing to pay $800 a month – double its current rent – to move from the basement of the Yachats Commons into the former city offices and Room 4, a pre-school classroom. The group would end its use of Room 7.
• Held an inconclusive discussion about an increase in overnight transient camping in the city, but promised to revisit the issue during the winter and come up with a possible plan to implement next year;
• After a long, sometimes contentious discussion over the city’s website and lack of access to decades of city records, agreed to ask former councilor James Kerti to put together a committee of technical experts to examine problems with the website and a proposal by Scott to pay a group from Oregon State University $4,000 to offers suggestions for improvements, including getting access to documents and records prior to 2018, which are currently unavailable.

 

Here is a copy of the letter from Anita Sites to interim city manager Katherine Guenther and the five council members that was read into the record Wednesday:

Hi Katherine,

Thank you and Kimmie for your time today to discuss the offer of a $48,600 starting salary for the Accounting position plus other responsibilities to fill the remaining 3 days of the week.

Per our discussion, as I feel that my experience, contribution to date, and potential were undersold and therefore undervalued, I would be remiss not to provide basic background on my qualifications for this position.

I stated in the interview and at today’s meeting, while I have no formal accounting training as I have not solely been part of the accounting department, not a CPA or accountant of any kind, however, I have performed many accounting activities and functions of a full cycle of accounting having managed the advertising expenditures of global accounts and the administrative fiduciary aspects of the advertising agencies I worked for in my 20 years in the highly competitive Los Angeles market.  My references assured me that they, too, tried to drive the relevancy to this role when called.

These are all applicable and transferable skills to this position, as well as the almost two years at the City of Yachats processing of roughly 500 utility billing payments every month, 125 quarterly transient rental taxes, F&B taxes, building permits, SDC charges, LIDs, business & vacation rental licenses, facility rental charges, and other miscellaneous fees ensuring accurate journal entries and timely reporting. I also set up auto pays and new accounts, distributed billing statements and invoices accordingly.  For clarity, this is one-half of the accounting function that is being done in the City.

Additionally, despite not being part of COG, I was instrumental in the following:

1. Only after 3 mths on the job as a temp:  Applied pressure and follow up with Springbrook to account for credits and previous balances on customer’s billing – a feature that should have been standard in addition to being able to attach the newsletter and press releases, and customization of the e-bills.
2. After 5 months of being out of the country, I quickly identified that Springbrook software does not have the capability of the licensing module the City needed for its transient rental, food & beverage, or business customers – this after almost a year of implementation discussions between Springbrook and COG.
3. Despite the availability of an Accounts Receivable module in Springbrook, none was developed. Therefore I had to create my own spreadsheet to report how much of the LIDs have been received and are still outstanding in the budget proposal discussion.
4. To identify how many Tax Lots are in the City and the SDC fees paid, I developed reporting to use directionally and aid in discussing growth and building potential.

The city paid COG $7400 a month for an employee at City Hall two days a week, plus Janet Cline remotely at $55 an hour. This Accounting Clerk position was developed to be in-house and was expected to perform other duties. Since my hire, I provided seamless office coverage for when Kimmie was out of the office while archiving hundreds of boxes. I’ve also been tasked or proactively accomplished the following:

1. Developed Manuals:  Vacation Rental License Lottery, Social Media Playbook
2. Improved Communication: Project List to ensure project flow and accountability, Contact Report, and CIP
3. Forward-thinking developed communication/marketing plan proposal: to ensure effective and efficient communication to the community
4. Researched and updated various key documents:  BOLI, Employee Handbook, Volunteer Handbook, other City websites/Financial Budgets
5. Maintain website updates/forms, review analytics, and developed and maintained the email database
6. Designed, developed, and produced Newsletter for wider distribution and added features
7. Identified Issues and Recommended Solutions:  COVID-19 safe office environment, Secured Building (i.e., locks that do not need a key to get in/out and barriers to control traffic flow), signage
8. Extra set of eyes

I am well versed in Springbrook – the accounting software, City website, and GoYachats to know its capabilities and how to collectively utilize in providing any communication, statements, or reporting the community desperately needs to be informed.

While the initial salary budgeted wasn’t ideal for me because of all the reasons above, I was willing to be open and objective on being offered within those parameters plus the opportunity for growth.  However, after hearing the Council meeting, there is so much to be concerned about as it was problematic at best. Regardless, the mandated $48,600 salary that is not even in the realm of the approved $52K-$65K budget for this role is not an accurate assessment of the job demands (2 days for Accounting and 3 days on a slew of other responsibilities).  It only took account of what I had not performed previously but not the value of what I have already contributed to the City and the highly qualified skills that I offer to perform all the other functions.  To be clear, this salary was mandated based on the accounting role that has historically been performed 2 days of the week and zero discussion on the general administrative role that is a backup – that you don’t have to train, manage, or provide any oversight.

Since February, I had raised my hand to be trained when COG initially submitted their resignation as I believe that seamless transition is a necessary benefit, especially if possible.  I know you know my best intentions and willingness to offer my skills with the City of Yachats, especially during this time, however as with any employment, organizations must invest in their employees, be vested in their future, see value in their contribution and provide security.  I do not feel this offer to me specifically was designed with that in mind.

I appreciate your time and candid discussion.

Best,

-Anita Sites.