ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JULIE ANDERSON
If all goes according to the plan of the city council, the City of
Hillsboro will soon have a new position: city administrator.
?Hillsboro is continuing to grow and we have a city clerk and a city
superintendent who are both overworked,? said Mayor Delores Dalke.
Discussions about adding the position have been going on at various
levels for several years, according to Dalke.
She said they needed a person to manage the details and look into
grant opportunities for the city.
?It?s very, very difficult and it will take a lot of the pressure, we
believe, off of the council and particularly off of myself if we have
an executive who will be watching a lot of the things that I?m doing
now as a volunteer,? Dalke said.
Some of those things would include going to grant workshops and
driving around town to find out what parts of the the city should be
included in grant applications.
The city has signed an agreement with the Kansas League of
Municipalities to create the full-time position. The league will help
the city throughout the process of creating the position and then
hiring someone.
Jennifer Finley, of the KLM, attended a work session with the council
to explain what they would need to do.
Council members were given sample job descriptions to look at and the
league is getting more information for the council on cities of
similar size so they will have an idea what the salary should be.
The league also will advertise the position on behalf of the city and
do the initial screenings of resumes.
The council hopes to have someone hired this year, but they will have
to figure out where the money will come from.
?We definitely want to get this in place so that when we budget for
2001 the money is available, but we are hoping we find the funds prior
to that so we can actually hire prior to the first of the year,? Dalke
said.
The council has not set a deadline for hiring someone. It depends on
when the job description is completed and a salary is determined.
Dalke expected to have the rest of the information back from the
council members early this week on what they want in the job
description. The factors will include the education and background
required. Once the information is completed, it will be given to
Finley.
After the job description and salary have been determined, the council
will advertise the position.
Dalke said she was told some communities have to go through three
rounds of advertising before they find a person with whom they feel
comfortable.
She said the position they are creating is in addition to what the
city already has.
?We?re not eliminating any position,? Dalke said. ?That has to be made
really clear. We?re not eliminating the city superintendent position.
We?re not eliminating the city clerk?s position. This is an additional
person.?
According to Dalke, Hillsboro is almost the only community its size in
the state that doesn?t have a city administrator.
But a city administrator is not a new position for the city.
In the 1970s and early ?80s, Dalke said, the city had an
administrator.
But at the time, the council wanted to have more control over what was
going on and eliminated the position in 1983.
At that time, they hired Johnnie Liles and gave him the title of city
superintendent.
?Being a citizen, I just think they weren?t finding the people they
were happy with at that time and so they decided just to eliminate the
position,? Dalke said.
?The thing is, once you hire an administrator and let him or her do
their job, you don?t have that day-to-day finger on what?s going on,?
she said.
Dalke said as long as the right person is hired, letting go of some of
the control would be no problem for her or the council.
To keep the council informed, the administrator would provide a
written and verbal report at each council meeting.
?I just think that at our rate of growth and as progressive as
Hillsbo
City to add administrator position
