Next Council president prepares for new hires

City Council's next president Darrell Clarke is positioning Council for the next year.

At their last session of the year yesterday, City Council approved a bill Clarke sponsored that would transfer $400,000 from Council's current materials, supplies and equipment budget to their personal services budget which includes money for salaries and Council staff.

"During the course of the year, you will see significant internal transfers within the administration's budget; this is the same thing except this is for the Council," Clarke said recently. "You have money in a particular category, sometimes you have to move the money to another category to accommodate the needs. In this particular case there will probably be a need to accommodate personnel hires within the Council's budget."

Clarke said Council is losing two "high level" employees including Chief Financial Officer Charles McPherson, who was on a personal services contract for the last 18 months and is slated to retire Dec. 31, and Rick Aurebach, Council's top attorney who recently retired. He added that sick time and vacation time will need to be paid out.

"We're not sure what we're going to need in January," Clarke said, adding there was "no anticipation to hire anybody at this point. This is simply positioning the Council in the event there is a need to hire additional personnel to accommodate the needs of Council based on two particular instances: the exit of two high level employees."

He would not say who, if anyone he was considering for the job.