LAKEPORT, Calif. – After keeping a hiring freeze in place for several years in response to the city’s financial challenges, on Tuesday night the Lakeport City Council voted unanimously to lift the freeze.
Administrative Services Director Kelly Buendia took the request to lift the four-year-old hiring freeze to the council due to a large amount of recent turnover.
Lifting the freeze would allow administrative staff to hire new employees to fill vacancies as they occur, rather than having to go back to the council each time, Buendia said.
The freeze’s requirements for the council’s permission to hire can add about three weeks to the hiring process, “which is becoming really difficult for the folks out there filling in for those vacancies,” she said.
The council, which has turned down previous requests to lift the freeze, didn’t have any major concerns about doing so this time, although Councilman Bob Rumfelt said he wanted there to be communication about the hirings so the public could know what was going on.
The request was approved 4-0, with Councilman Tom Engstrom absent from the Tuesday meeting.
Also on Tuesday, the council approved the Lakeport Police Department’s proposed reorganization and hiring of a new lieutenant.
Buendia said Police Chief Brad Rasmussen was reorganizing his department from three sergeants to one lieutenant and two police sergeants. That will ensure that Rasmussen has a second-in-command at all times.
Rasmussen told the council that in analyzing the costs for the different positions, there would be an increase in some budget lines and decreases in others. Regarding decreases, Rasmussen said a lieutenant would not receive overtime and holiday pay.
Rumfelt said he wanted to see the city hire more police.
City Manager Margaret Silveira agreed that the city needed to take a look at staffing levels in the police department, which she said is operating with a skeleton crew. Other departments also are working with far less staff, she said.
Councilmember Suzanne Lyons moved to approve the police organization and lieutenant hiring, as well as the hiring of a full-time confidential office specialist for the city, which the council approved 4-0.
Public Works Director Mark Brannigan had been set to ask the council for a hiring freeze exemption in order to hire a new parks maintenance worker 1 position, but the lifting of the freeze made that request moot.
The council also put off a discussion on mobile catering requirements at the request of Community Development Director Richard Knoll.
Knoll said he had received a letter from a hot dog vendor in the city and wanted to be able to refer it back to the ad hoc Mobile Catering Ordinance Review Committee for consideration.
“There’s really no immediate crisis situation here that we need to take action tonight,” said Knoll.
The council also directed City Attorney Steve Brooks to seek a higher payoff on a short sale of 707 20th St., which received a city redevelopment housing loan of $7,000. The city was offered $700, Mayor Stacey Mattina suggested the city seek $3,000.
The council also approved a letter to the Board of Supervisors, turning down a county request to meet over annexation of the South Main Street area and a water main loop project, as Lake County News has reported.
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