Who's Counting the Money?

In last Thursdays city council meeting a motion was introduced to delay the hiring of the new city treasurer until July this year when three newly elected council members will be in place. I must preface my comments by the very obvious fact that I am on the outside looking in and do not have all the details to make a thoroughly informed decision.

My gut response is a call to action remembering the wise words of Uncle Aust, whose mantra was 'Don't put off until tomorrow, what you can do today'. He and Uncle Tony ran a large truck farm where they grew vegetables not trucks. I worked for them several summers and have fond memories of going to market at 4:00am, coming back to the farm for a large breakfast about 8:00am then picking in the fields until early afternoon before it got too hot. I digress. If there is a short listed qualified candidate for treasurer, I would not delay in making an employment decision. A delay may cause the favorite candidate to seek employment elsewhere. The new council members would not be in a position to make a hiring decision until interviewing all the candidates. That's already happened with the existing council.

Discussion both for and against delaying the hiring decision was open and straight forward. Those in favor of delay sighted the heavy workload of the acting treasurer, Amby Jenkins, and the additional work required in making a transition to a new treasurer.

A motion to delay the hiring of a new treasurer passed by majority vote 3/2. With no more information, I would have voted with the 2.