Aberdeen Mayor Erik Larson will continue his efforts to persuade council members that a city administrator would be a good addition to the payroll in 2017 — even though the council approved next year’s budget this week without funding for a city administrator.
Larson intends to set aside time next year for one or more council workshops focusing on what would be the job duties of a city administrator.
“It might take a whole year, but I don’t think this is a dead issue,” he said late this week.
Including the position in the budget was to determine council members’ interest in funding it before putting together details about responsibilities and qualifications, Larson explained Thursday.
“It’s been pretty clear there’s a good amount of support in general,” he said. “At some point, if council feels comfortable and we have a working description of the position I’ll request a supplemental budget to hire someone.”
Council member Peter Schave made the motion to remove the $45,000 slated to pay for a city administrator to be employed during the last three months of 2017. He said the issue hadn’t received enough discussion.
“I don’t even have a clue if we need one,” said Schave, who has expressed opposition to the idea throughout the council’s budget process.
How they voted
Six council members, including Schave, voted to remove the partial-year funding for the position from the next year’s spending plan. Those members who voted to remove the funding were Schave, Tawni Andrews, James Cook, Alice Phelps, Alan Richrod and Margo Shortt.
The four members who wanted the allocation retained in the budget were Jeff Cook, Denny Lawrence, Kathi Prieto and Dee Anne Shaw.
Council member Tim Alstrom wasn’t at the Wednesday night meeting and one of the Fourth Ward council seats remains vacant after Kathi Hoder’s departure in November.
The budget request had already been reduced from a full-year to just the final three months. Pay and benefits would have been $180,000 for the entire year — $45,000 for employment during the last three months of the year.
Inspector funding restored for most of 2017
Council members, however, did restore enough money to next year’s budget to hire a building inspector, a position also referred to as a rental property inspector.
Four citizens spoke to the council about the inspector position. Three were against it.
The city setting up a rental property owner licensing system was one thing but hiring a rental property inspector is another, said opponent Dave Jennings.
“Be honest with yourselves and the public,” he told the council.
A property owner was also concerned about what the city is trying to achieve.
The city potentially allowing entry of an inspector into properties “violates the Fourth Amendment,” said resident and property owner Linda Hole. “I submit this position should not be filled.”
She also suggested money from the city’s sale of property rental licenses be used to help tenants pay for legal actions against landlords who don’t make repairs.
Dorothy Crow, however, told the council the position was necessary because not all landlords are conscientious.
“In my neighborhood, a lovely apartment building has gone from being absolutely gorgeous to being derelict in the last seven years,” she said.
The Building Department only has one building inspector and not long ago had four.
Council members cited the hiring of a second inspector as the primary need and played down the employee’s function as a rental property inspector — the job title used by Mayor Larson when he presented the budget to the council back in November.
Council member Jeff Cook noted that the council must approve rental property aspects of this inspector’s duties because no rules exist today.
“This position is needed now,” he said. The “Building Department is woefully understaffed.”
And council member Andrews also pointed out that the program wasn’t even in place and that rental inspections wouldn’t be the employee’s “sole purpose.”
Larson has said he probably shouldn’t have described the position as a rental property inspector when he made the request. He based the job title on council actions taken last year, when the city asked rental property owners to identify themselves through a licensing program created by the council. The city began issuing these licenses earlier this year.
This employee will be funded for at least three quarters of the year and could start work in March or April. Full-year funding would have been up to $78,200 for their pay and benefit. To reflect a partial year of employment the amount was reduced to roughly $63,000.
Building security at Police Department
The council also voted down an addition to the budget of $75,000 to erect a security fence around the police department parking lot.
“I want to see safety at our police department before something happens,” said Police Sgt. Darren King.
He noted that across the country there has been “a very serious turn against police officers” and that the lot is used by the public, volunteers — including the teens and young adults in the department’s Explorers Program — and civilian employees.
Staff has been documenting incidents in the lot, and King made note of one recent example in which a woman came to the department’s back door and started pounding. It was around 3 a.m.
“She was high on drugs and tried to swing at us,” he said.
Larson said other, less expensive security measures should be implemented to improve safety around the police department. The building, however, is in poor shape and putting up a security fence with controlled entry equipment could be a waste of money if the structure needs major improvements or relocation is necessary within the next couple of years and the fence ends up being torn out, he said.
Larson would like to see a capital facilities plan started next year. This would include an inventory of the city’s existing infrastructure and capital assets. It would also determine what needs exist, detail potential funding sources that could be used to improve conditions, and set out replacement schedules.
“It’s overdue,” Larson said about the plan, which he suspects wasn’t done earlier because the city didn’t have enough money for improvements the process would uncover. Grays Harbor Council of Governments offers assistance with such city government activities.
The police station likely will be given high priority in such a plan. Problems there include its wiring, roof, insulation, air systems and a poor overall layout that’s not very conducive to safety of staff, he noted.
“It’s not the most functional building,” Larson said.
More than $700,000 is budgeted for capital expenditures in 2017. A significant number of these will be done around City Hall — a building he describes as being in “not great, but decent shape.”
The council also allocated $35,000 for a dump truck to be used by the street department.
Approval of the budget was supposed to occur Dec. 14, but council members postponed doing it because many of them had questions about various items, particularly the city administrator and the inspector. They held a second budget workshop to discuss some of these matters.
