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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 2010)
opinion An Opinion: The Revolving Door Goes ‘Round and ‘Round By Scott Laird The revolving door that is Vernonia City Hall is back in action and may or may not see more activity in the next few months. In November, Vernonians will go to the polls and have a chance to possibly replace three of five positions on our City Council. The fact that eight people have put themselves forward as candidates for two City Council positions and three people have elected to run against current Mayor Sally Harrison, is, I think, a clear indication that the citizens in this community are not happy with the performance of the current City Council. This community is in the midst of profound and catalytic change, with immense problems and issues standing in its way. This is a critical time in the future of this community and strong leadership is needed. The poor performance and sudden resignation of former City Administrator Bob Young was an indication of what has been wrong with the Vernonia City Council-- lack of engagement and oversight. The inability of Council to monitor and hold Young accountable for his performance resulted in Young accomplishing almost nothing in his twelve months on the job. We need a strong, thoughtful, hands-on Council that understands their role in city government-- setting policy and making sure the City Administrator is carrying out that policy. Because I attend almost every City Council meeting, I know that only about half of the twelve candidates that will appear on the ballot that arrives in October regularly attend Council meetings or are actively serving city government in some way. That’s not to say that qualified and capable candidates who aren’t engaged in City functions aren’t in the mix. My hope is that all the candidates are doing their homework, developing a working understanding of the current budget and its deficiencies, a working understanding of the vast number projects that the City has undertaken or is moving towards, and the numerous issues that surround current staffing shortfalls. Any citizen elected to serve on this Council needs to be prepared to hit the ground running. There is a lot of work to do and it will require a Council that is ready to roll up its sleeves, pay attention to details and make hard decisions. That being said, this election also requires that the citizens who will be choosing their representatives on City Council also need to do their homework and make informed choices when voting. Vernonia’s Voice will be be sending out questionnaires to each candidate and publish their responses in our October 12, 2010 issue. In addition, on October 5, 2010, Vernonia’s Voice will host a “Meet the Candidates” forum where citizens will have a chance to hear the candidates answer questions about themselves and the Vernonia city government. This will be a great opportunity for voters to better inform themselves about their choices and better understand the qualifications and viewpoints of those running for office-- I hope as many of you as possible will join me at the Vernonia Scout Cabin at 7:00 P.M. for this informative evening. *** At the September 7, 2010, City Council meeting, City Administrator Interim Pro Tem Bill Haack presented the Council with four options for going through the process of hiring a permanent City Administrator. In my mind, they really only have one choice-- find a way to keep Bill Haack on the job. Since the Flood of 2007, Vernonia City Hall has had five City Administrators: Dick Kline, Aldie Howard, Jim Johnson, Bob Young, and currently Bill Haack. Haack came gift-wrapped to the city through Columbia Pacific Economic Development District (ColPac) where he has been under contract assisting Columbia County, and mainly Vernonia, with economic recovery since almost immediately after the December 3, 2007 flood. The City entered into a personal services contract with ColPac in June allowing Haack to fill the role of City Administrator while still technically under the employment of ColPac. Haack’s contract with ColPac expires in December of this year, meaning the city needs to consider how to fill the position that Haack has taken over since september14 2010 3 Bob Young’s ignominious resignation in June of this year. As Haack presented to Council on September 7th, they have a number of options in front of them. They can hire the League of Oregon Cities (LOC) to assist them with a search for the best possible candidates Publisher and Managing Editor and then hire the best choice, which will cost Scott Laird the city between $8,000 and $10,000. They 503-367-0098 can directly appoint someone to the position. scott@vernoniasvoice.com They can go through a Confirmation Process Copy Editor that leads to a final selection-- basically having Haack go through as extensive an interview Dennis Nicks Contributors process as Council deems necessary. Or they Nancy Burch can negotiate to extend the personal services Jessica Jensen Jones Photography contract with ColPac and delay making a Shannon Romtvedt Scott Laird permanent hire until a later time. Shannon Romtvedt Three of the options presented include Kris Stuart retaining Bill Haack as City Administrator, and that to me is what needs to happen. Want to advertise? The city is limited by fiscal constraints Contact: ads@vernoniasvoice.com as to whom they will able to hire and how Have an article? much they can afford to pay someone to Contact: news@vernoniasvoice.com work-- they have only budgeted for a half- time City administrator after January 1, 2011. One year subscriptions (24 issues) $35 An employee who works more than 600 PO Box 55 hours triggers the need to pay PERS benefits, Vernonia, OR 97064 something the city would like to avoid given 503-367-0098 its tight finances. The options available to Council are very limited, indeed. www.VernoniasVoice.com Hiring the LOC to help with the process does give the city the opportunity to interview other possible choices and, according to the LOC, the current pool of potential candidates more important. who are retired and willing to work part time is fairly The possibility of extending the personal deep. At the September 7th meeting, Council chose to services contract with ColPac would allow the City forego this option at this time. Council time to monitor the city budget and develop There are a number of reasons why I agree a plan for the next fiscal year, hopefully making more with this decision by the Council. The money would money available to hire someone. Appointing Haack be better spent compensating current staff or helping also makes sense-- he’s been doing a good job so far fill empty positions at City Hall. A candidate who and wants the job. Going through a confirmation would come through this process would most likely be process allows the Council to cover themselves and an unknown entity in Vernonia-- look what happened show they have done their due diligence. These are when we hired Bob Young using this same process. all good options as far as I’m concerned. Whichever Haack would be included in that interview process option they choose, the Vernonia City Council needs and we could go through the entire process and spend to get this decision right. They need to decide to retain the money only to decide the best candidate is already Bill Haack. sitting in the office he’s interviewing for. *** And Haack is an excellent candidate. Bill August 31 was officially the end of the of the Haack has been working in Vernonia for the last two Frank Grace era as the Vernonia Chief of Police. and a half years. He is familiar with the landscape here. Whenever I’m about to say something negative He is familiar with the scope of current projects that the about someone, I always try to find something positive city has in progress or is considering undertaking. He to say first. So here it goes-- on the surface, Frank is familiar with and seems to have the respect of, and a Grace was a nice man. good working relationship with, current city staff. He is That being said, the effects of Grace’s one year smart enough to know and admit when he doesn’t know on the job here in Vernonia could be felt for years to something, and smart enough to obtain the knowledge come. Grace showed fiscal irresponsibility, spending he needs to do the job. He understands the strengths money the city couldn’t afford on a security system for and weaknesses of the current City Council and current City Hall and committing the city to a five-year lease city staff. He has shown good follow through and does on a brand new SUV-- a type of vehicle the city could a great job informing Council of the work he is doing. have procured for much less money. And, most importantly, he wants to be here. When Grace refused to enforce the no Haack has experience managing large alcohol policy on school grounds during this year’s construction projects. He also has experience obtaining Friendship Jamboree, he did serious damage to the and managing large federal and state grant funds. He relationship between the School District and the group sat through the City budget process this past year and that organizes the Softball Tournament and uses those understands the current financial situation. He has grounds. The one task he was assigned to complete-- been obtaining valuable experience overseeing the revising the City Emergency Plan took him the entire Police Department since Chief Frank Grace resigned time he was here. His twice-a-month reports to City on August 31, as well as public works experience in the Council were filled with useless information and were absence of a Public Works Director in Vernonia. He a waste of paper, time and effort. We still don’t know has served on the Beaverton Planning Commission so all the details of the damage Frank Grace did while he he has a working knowledge of planning concepts and was here in Vernonia. requirements. Yes, Grace was being managed by Bob Young, Haack is obviously committed to this whose failures as City Administrator are becoming community. After observing all the missteps, and more self-evident with each passing day, and Young inefficiencies of the past few years from a front row was being managed (or not) by the Vernonia City seat, and uncovering even more issues to contend with Council, so blame for Grace’s performance can be as the acting City Administrator, Haack is still interested spread around. But in the end, Grace’s decisions were in working for and serving this community. mostly of his own choosing. No, Haack doesn’t have previous experience No, City Council didn’t give Grace a warm working as a City Administrator, except for his farewell when he left last month. No, they didn’t give appointment here as Interim. But he brings something him a smile and a friendly handshake. They handed much more valuable to the table-- experience working him his hat and showed him the door. in Vernonia. And at this critical juncture that is much