Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home City Council last week approved an increase in the finance director salary schedule in order to attract more experienced applicants for the position.
Finance Director Pat Gray, who has worked for the city since 1991, has announced that she plans to retire on Jan. 31.
“As we’ve discussed, we are going to sadly be losing Pat here in the near future,” City Manager Ray Towry told the council during its regular meeting on Nov. 14. “As what happens when we have a vacancy, I looked over at job description, job title and salary comparables. This is similar to what we did when we hired our community and economic development director a few months ago. We’re hoping to bring the salary in line with other comparables.
“As you can see, Sweet Home is significantly under the averages. So we’ve placed before requesting you look at a couple different options.”
When the city advertised for a new community and economic development director earlier this year, the applicants were all inexperienced, Towry said. The council bumped up the salary schedule, and the city was able to attract applicants with experience.
“When you start looking around at what’s going on, there’s a huge demand for leadership positions period because we’re seeing retirements, a lot of retirements right now, for people in leadership – department head positions, but particularly finance directors,” Towry said. “There’s a huge demand and a short supply. Our goal is to get the best person we can in to do the job. We’ll work hard to do that in a timely fashion.”
Sweet Home was at the bottom among six comparable cities, Towry said. Comparable cities included nearby Lebanon and five cities around a population of 9,000, including Silverton, Independence, Prineville, Cottage Grove and Monmouth.
At the bottom of Sweet Home’s salary schedule, the finance director is paid $5,846 per month. Gray, at the top end, receives $6,837.
Among comparable cities, the average low is $6,613, and the average high is $8,487, with Lebanon at the top end in both cases – $7,288 at the low end and $9,609 at the top end of the salary schedule.
Silverton was at the top among similarly sized cities, with a low salary of $6,938 and a high of $8,855.
Towry recommended and the council approved increasing the salary schedule in Sweet Home to $6,612 at the bottom step of the salary schedule and $7,734 at the top of the schedule.
“Those numbers are more consistent and in line with other department heads,” Towry said, and they match comparable cities more closely.
“I understand, Mr. Mayor, that we may not be able to get a person that we pay the wage that we say Pat’s getting,” said Councilor Dave Trask. “However, if a new person is worth more than Pat is making, that doesn’t seem right to me.
“She’s worth every dime we’ve ever paid her. She’s been here a long time, and we’re going to start somebody out making more money than she makes after 15 years or however many years she’s been here, it seems a little (weird). I’m not saying we shouldn’t. I’m saying I kind of don’t like it.”
Councilor Bob Briana agreed and asked whether the city could advertise the position with “negotiable” as the salary.
“Good luck,” Towry said.
When people are looking for jobs, they’re looking for the salary range and benefits, Mayor Greg Mahler said.
“I think we need to go somewhere mid-range here and get this thing out and get it started because if we don’t we’re going to be in a hurt,” Trask said and moved to approve the increase.
The council voted 7-0 to do so.
The application period for the position opened Oct. 15 and will close Dec. 8 with interviews scheduled for Dec. 18.
Present were Mayor Greg Mahler, Bob Briana, Susan Coleman, Diane Gerson, James Goble, Lisa Gourley and Dave Trask.
In other business, the council:
n Approved the city manager’s one-year evaluation.
The council rated City Manager Ray Towry at 3.5 on a scale of 1 to 5, a slight decrease from the positive six-month evaluation the council completed in September when it rated the city manager at 3.67.
The council had begun that process earlier this year, but wasn’t able to complete it until September as the council and city manager worked out a new evaluation process.
Towry went to work as city manager on Nov. 14, 2016.
n Held the first reading of revisions to the city’s transient occupancy tax ordinance.
The city charges a 6-percent transient occupancy, or lodging, tax. The funds are used to pay for tourism projects.
“We want the state to collect it for us,” Gray said, noting that it’s the same arrangement the city has to collect marijuana sales taxes.
“In order for them to collect it for us, we have to abide with their policies,” she said. “For us we just have our little motels and hotels, bed and breakfasts are here. In going through their stuff, there’s all sorts of stuff out there on the Internet that we could possibly be collecting transient tax from that I wasn’t aware of.
“I would like to have us update our ordinance to reflect the places that the state is collecting from with their 1 percent then hopefully ride on their shirttails and have them collect the transient tax for us while they’re collecting their 1 percent.”
The revisions would enable the city to capture revenue from residents who rent rooms and houses out using services like Airbnb, Gray said.
She said she had not heard of that until she began looking at the occupancy tax, and it has not been addressed in the current city ordinance.
At times, lodging providers have paid only the state or the city tax but not the other, Gray said. Sometimes they don’t report the same amount of revenue subject to the taxes.
When approved, local lodging providers will no longer need to prepare two reports and may make just one payment, Gray said. The ordinance also requires providers to detail the 6-percent tax on the bill and display a certificate declaring the tax rate.
She said that some people have reported local lodging providers charging a “tax” of 15 percent and claiming that’s the rate that the city charges.
The second reading is scheduled for Nov. 28. The council may approve an ordinance following a third reading of the ordinance.
n Approved an ordinance update of the trees, shrubs and bushes ordinance to reference the newly created Park and Tree Committee instead of Tree Commission.
n Declared the manufactured home at Sankey Park, no longer in use as a caretaker’s home, surplus.
Based on a 2014 plan for the park, the city is removing the building, which had been at the park since 1994.
“When we’re done, you’re going to have a lot of open space where you’re going to be able to see from the road into the park,” said Public Works Director Greg Spillman. “That’s kind of the start of this concept that we’ve talked about.”
He said the mobile home has a value of $22,000 to $25,000, but it would cost around $10,000 to remove it. It also may require a new roof, a cost of $4,000 to $5,000.
The city has received three bids or offers regarding the manufactured home. One offered to remove it for $9,500, while another offered $2,000 to relocate the manufactured home.
J&M Mobile Home offered $5,000 to remove the home.
With the council’s approval, the city is moving forward with selling the building to J&M.
n Agreed to cancel the council’s regular meeting on Dec. 26.