News : City council tables ordinance on Parks and Rec hiring authority

The Vinton City Council tabled an ordinance that would have transferred the hiring authority of the Vinton Parks and Recreation Board to the city coordinator and city council during a special meeting Thursday evening.

Currently the parks board has full authority to hire a director and other employees; the new ordinance would have required that the board recommend a new hire to the city coordinator, who makes the hiring decision, subject to council approval. The new rule would also require the parks director to report directly to the city coordinator.

It was that second part of the ordinance that caused council members to table it.

Resident Kurt Karr told the council that he feared that having to report to both a board and a city coordinator could at some time but a parks director in the "untenable" position of being told one thing by the board but something else by the coordinator.

"Your comment gives me pause," said city council member David Redlinger, who said he had not considered that possible scenario.

The council members agreed, and will continue discussing the issue.

Housing question last year began the discussion

The city council had begun discussing the Parks and Rec Board's role in hiring employees after a controversy arose last fall over the housing of the director. Since being hired in the mid 1980s, Parks Director Duane Randall has lived in city-owned housing. That practice was more common in the past, although nobody on the present council can remember how it began. Late in 2010, the parks board proposed allowing Randall to move out of that house so he could buy his own home, and increasing his pay $1,040 per month to make up for the loss of the city-provided home.

At that time, several residents complained to Mayor John Watson and the city council, describing the change as a "raise." The parks board withdrew its proposal; Randall continues to live in the city-owned home.

The council, however began discussing the need for changing the policy so it is prepared to deal with hiring a new director in a few years, when Randall retires.

Citizens raised objections during meeting

Along with Karr, two other men expressed their opposition to the new ordinance.

Brad Johnson, who serves on the Benton County Conservation Board (which like the Vinton parks board, is completely independent), told the council how the county's board functions. He said he was concerned that the ordinance would result in the board losing its authority.

But Redlinger replied that the ordinance would only affect the hiring process; the board, he said, would retain the role of interviewing and recommending future employees, as well as the oversight of the department and its activities.

Don Eells of rural Vinton told the council that "something doesn't seem right" about the ordinance.

He asked the council to ask themselves several questions:

Who originated the idea?

What is the motivation? Why do this? Why now?

Are there any self-interests, personalities or grudges?

What are the potential positive and negative impacts of this change?

Are we making our jobs easier as the expense of our citizens?

But Council Member Bud Maynard replied that the new ordinance was not about Parks Director Duane Randall, or grudges.

"It's about public policy moving forward," he said.