NEWS ARCHIVE

(Clinton) -- Council approves consultant for search for new city administrator, but mayor may veto it.

The search for a new Clinton City Administrator has hit a speed bump. At Tuesday’s city council meeting the council did approve a resolution to hire the city’s human resource consultant, Paul Greufe and Associates, to lead the search for a new interim city administrator and a full time administrator.

The action was approved on a 4 to 2 vote with Paul Gassman and Maggie Klaess the ‘no’ votes with Bev Herman absent.

The council accepted the resignation of Jeffrey Horne as city administrator a couple of weeks ago. The council had requested that resignation as Horne had been on personal leave for several weeks.

But as part of the discussion, Mayor Mark Vulich said he would not immediately sign the action and may not sign it. That would mean it would go into effect in 14 days without his signature.

Following the meeting, the mayor met with the media and said he was not sure if he would veto the resolution or let it go into effect without his signature. The mayor said he was not convinced “we were taking the best course of action at this time, “and had some unanswered questions, including a concern about Greufe’s qualifications for this type of search and hiring process.

The council had indicated they hoped to have Paul Greufe attend the council meeting next week to discuss the search process, but that remains unclear because he has not been hired until the resolution goes into effect.

Council member John Rowland led the charge to hire Greufe and promoted his experience and education to help the city. But, Vulich called the letter from Rowland to the council and mayor inappropriate, and said it read as Rowland was acting as the liaison with Greufe and that is not proper according to city ordinance. He also believed Greufe solicited the business from individual council members and also called that inappropriate. The mayor also said he had a concern that some of the emails that had apparently been sent around about the issue violating the open meetings law.

The Clinton mayor says it appears actions are being decided before the meetings and that bothered him, adding he wants to slow things down.

Vulich says he has other options for ideas how to proceed and would detail some of those ideas if he decides to veto the action. p> In a related note-the Chamber of Commerce and the Clinton Regional Development Corporation in a joint letter to the city encouraged them to undertake a thoughtful process in hiring a new city administrator and asked to be involved in the process.

Written 12/12/2012 by Dave Vickers - KROS News

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