July 9, 2019 4:40 a.m.
A planned discussion about the process of hiring a new city manager was delayed and proposal to add a new position to City staff was tabled at the Roseburg City Council meeting on Monday night.
Mayor Larry Rich said an Executive Session to talk about the city manager process needed to wait until all councilors could attend. Council President Tom Ryan and Councilor Bob Cotterell were not at the meeting. Rich said Cotterell has been hospitalized for several days and should be back in Roseburg later this week. No reason was given for Ryan’s absence. Rich was hopeful an Executive Session could be held in just over a week. Public Works Director Nikki Messenger has been also serving a city manager pro-tem since the retirement of Lance Colley at the end of April.
The council was set to vote on making a budget appropriation transfer to cover the cost of adding the new position of a Communications Specialist for the City until a union official objected. Jeff Brown represents the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. That organization represents city employees that are unionized. Brown said their contract calls for a re-opening of their agreement if the City’s financial situation has changed significantly. Brown said if the City could afford to add a position which is proposed to cost just over $100,000 per year counting salary and benefits, then they should look at adjusting the compensation level for existing unionized workers first.
Mayor Rich said the council should step back from adding the new position until staff could put together a report to address the concerns of the union, putting the proposal on pause.
Councilors approved allowing the library to work with the Douglas Education Service District on a plan to allow smaller school districts to obtain library cards and check out a limited number of items. The fee will be $20 per card issued. Library Director Kris Wiley said the school districts would pay the fee so their students and staff could get the card. The ESD courier would be used to get items to schools in the rural areas.