WHITEHALL — The Whitehall city council unanimously accepted the Double Haul Solutions recommendation for the city manager job description and salary scale during Tuesday's regular meeting.
The city is employing Double Haul, a strategic planning firm, to identify and vet candidates for the next city manager, with Scott Huebler set to retire in August. City clerk Brenda Bourdon said the job description is "more in-depth" than it's been in the past, accounting for several responsibilities Huebler has on a day-to-day basis.
Shortly prior to the meeting, an amended agenda was posted online and distributed in the council chambers, but the council voted 4-3 - mayor Steven Salter and council members Jeff Holmstrom and Tanya Cabala dissented - not to approve the amended agenda, which had added a spot to discuss city board vacancies that still exist. The council then voted 6-1, with Salter dissenting, to approve the original agenda.
The topic of board vacancies was a prickly one the last time it was addressed in January; multiple boards have open spots as the council did not approve all of Salter's original nominations. Salter said no other council member has approached him with alternative nominations.
"It's hard to work with people that won't work with you," Salter said.
Later, a public commenter took Salter to task for his public posture on the matter and questioned why council members should approach Salter given his seeming refusal to work with them, either.
The recent Playhouse sustainability committee recommendations were again discussed; Cabala requested a correction to the April 8 minutes to emphasize that the committee's recommendations were accepted, not necessarily approved. She also wanted her disappointment at the matter, which she expressed last week, not being put into a work session prior to submission to council entered into the record.
Council member Tom Ziemer shared his frustrations at the recent Local Development Finance Authority and Tax Increment Finance Authority meetings he attended. He said the LDFA approved providing $50,000 for the Playhouse for targeted marketing and that the TIFA board approved adding the Playhouse to its district (the latter move requires council approval to finalize). Huebler confirmed the LDFA move to the Mirror Thursday and said the money will take the form of sponsoring Playhouse events.
Noting the limited oversight the city council has over those two boards, Ziemer said in his opinion, "this is a slick way to funnel money to the Playhouse."
While not expressing an opinion on Ziemer's statements, Cabala said she would like to see the TIFA board and city council meet occasionally to go over their recent activities, and shared she'd like to see the council have some input on the decisions made by the LDFA and TIFA boards.
Elsewhere in the meeting, Ziemer shared his hope that the council and police department will be able to work together during coming budget hearings. He said he'd looked at similarly sized communities around the area and found Whitehall's police department had a higher budget, as a percentage of revenues, than the ones he'd researched; among other things, he said he'd found similar communities had an average of six full-time officers to Whitehall's eight.
One of the things Ziemer said he'd like to see - that incoming police chief Brandon Mahoney's detective lieutenant position not be filled and those responsibilities shared among other officers - was met with pushback by Holmstrom, who worked in the White Lake Fire Authority before retirement. He said Ziemer's estimates at how much the city would save by not filling the position were inflated as they did not account for the added expenses of paying full-time officers overtime pay for covering for duties others currently perform. He added that he wouldn't vote in favor of a budget that did not include filling that position.
