This year’s city budget reserved as much as $140,000, plus benefits for two key full-time positions – a city planner and a public information officer.
But more than five months into the fiscal year, neither position is filled with a full-time employee. The city planner position remains entirely vacant, despite the opening garnering 62 applicants to date, and a part-time independent contractor still handles the city’s public information duties at less than half the pay rate budgeted for the full-time gig.
Mayor Stephen Jones said Wednesday filling those positions will take a backseat to finding a court administrator and dealing with the pending retirements of Fire Chief Duane Hughes (in April) and Human Resources Director Pat Mitchell (in June).
Mitchell told The Dispatch she had fielded 28 applicants for fire chief. Some of those, Jones said, are “very good.” For HR director, Mitchell said 101 had applied, with about 40% of those meeting the minimum qualifications. “Very few,” she said, have public service experience.
Likewise, Chief Operations Officer Jammie Garrett reported to the council in January that eight had applied for the court administrator position, which has been open since July. None of the applicants have court experience, and municipal court plans to operate with an interim administrator at least through the end of this month.
Jones said he, along with other city leadership, is vetting applications for the open positions. He doesn’t mind waiting for the right fit for any of them.
“It’s not because we don’t want to (hire people),” Jones said. “… I could fill them all tomorrow with someone who is unqualified. … Sometimes, our problem is we hire someone we hope can do the job.”
City planner
The council budgeted a salary of up to $85,000 for the city planner who, according to the advertisement the city ran in November, would oversee projects like advanced planning, environmental zoning and future comprehensive planning, among other tasks. The job requires a bachelor’s degree in planning, architecture, business or public administration, or a closely related field, as well as three years of relevant experience or training.
The field of 62 applicants has so far been narrowed to six prospects, Mitchell said.
Even though the job is not among the administration’s top three priorities for filling vacancies, Jones still said he hopes to get a hire in place by Sept. 30.
“If not, then we’ll leave the position there (on next year’s budget) and continue to advertise for it,” he said. “… We’ve still got to make sure we have a good, qualified person who is going to lead us in the right direction. I’m not just going to hire somebody just because we have the position in the budget.”
George Irby has served as interim city planner since 2016, though he openly admits, “I don’t do any of it.” Instead, his job has focused more on federal programs, specifically the nascent Blight Elimination Program, through which the city secured millions in federal dollars to purchase and clear blighted properties to prepare them for redevelopment.
Irby has long advocated for the city to hire an “actual planner” to help with things like plan neighborhoods, traffic flow and “help give the city direction on where they’re going.”
“(The person could) bring some rhyme and reason to what they’re doing,” Irby said.
Public information officer
When the city contracted with former WCBI reporter Shawanda Jones last August as a part-time public information officer, the idea was she would flow into the full-time role once the new fiscal year began Oct. 1, at a salary of $55,000 a year.
That’s what she thought, anyway.
But when that time came, Shawanda Jones told The Dispatch, city leadership noted her $2,000 a month contract was good for a full year. In the meantime, she said she was told “we’re just going to work and see how this goes.”
By December, despite Mayor Jones asking if she wanted to move to full-time, she decided she would rather remain an independent contractor and take on additional clients.
“I love the council. I love the city of Columbus. I love working for them and the work that I do. … I came in with the full intention of (becoming) full-time,” said Shawanda Jones, who is not related to the mayor. “… I guess, with time, things change. Intentions change, as well as goals and priorities.”
Mayor Jones confirmed he had asked Shawanda Jones – some time after Oct. 1 – if she wanted to become full-time and she declined. As for what happens after her contract expires, the council will have to decide.
“I think she’s doing a great job,” the mayor said. “… Right now, it seems to be working like it is.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 31 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
