Kelso council sees hiring need
Thursday, January 4, 2007 6:19 AM PST
By Amy M. E. Fischer
Printable version
E-mail this articleDon Harris's phone rang Wednesday with yet another nuisance complaint to add to his growing list of code violations to investigate.
But the city of Kelso's nuisance abatement officer wouldn't be able to check out the complaint for a few days -- a pile of time-sensitive construction project reviews, shoreline permits and environmental impact studies on his desk was consuming his attention.
Harris has a backlog of 25 nuisance complaints to investigate, plus roughly 30 others to follow up on to ensure violations have been corrected.
"And it's only me. And people say I don't do anything," said Harris, who has been juggling project plan reviews with his nuisance abatement duties for eight years.
Harris' boss, Community Development Director Kent Anderson, resigned last month to take the same job with the city of Ridgefield. Both of them have been asking their supervisors to add staff to their department for three or four years, Harris said.
"Whatever works best is what I'm after ... so we have the staff to react to the needs of the city," he said. "Kelso's a lot busier than people realize."
City Manager Doug Robinson has resisted increasing staff, but Tuesday night, the City Council scheduled a workshop to explore the issue. Robinson was absent Tuesday due to illness.
The discussion began when Councilman Mark Chester suggested adding an employee to the community development department in addition to hiring a replacement for Anderson. The city needs to prepare for growth rather than scrambling from project to project, Chester said after the meeting.
"We need to make sure we're prepared for the growth that appears to be coming our way. We need to man up," agreed Councilman David Futcher.
The council decided to hold a workshop at 6 p.m. Jan. 23 to discuss the matter and "give the city manager direction on how we feel about the importance of community development," Mayor Don Gregory said.
Gregory also suggested transferring nuisance abatement responsibilities to the Kelso Police Department.
The city of Longview uses community service officers from its police department for code enforcement, Gregory noted. If Kelso did the same, Harris' expertise could be used exclusively for community development work, he said, adding that the city needs to keep builders happy by accommodating their schedules.
When asked whether the city could afford to increase its staffing, Gregory replied, "I don't know. That's Doug's ball of wax."
Futcher, however, said, "We can't afford not to."
Robinson said last week that although the city's economy improved last year, it remains to be seen whether that signals an overall trend or is a one-shot deal. The city is neither busy enough nor financially stable enough yet to support hiring more employees, he said.
"I would certainly like to see a sustained growth rate, something you can see that is not a hit-and-miss that happens every two or three months, and then you hit a lull," Robinson said Friday, adding that 2006 was a busy year.
"I think that there's room probably in the future for another person, but do I have plans to ask the council for another person?" Robinson continued. "No, I do not. ... I just don't think we're there yet."
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