Who Should Decide Who Keeps The Books?

At the La Habra Heights July 8 meeting two items elicited the most discussion from the council and the residents in attendance.

The first was City Manager Shauna Clark’s desire to move Management Analyst Carl Vos to a position she wished to create within the fire department to handle the administrative paper work of the department.

Retired Pasadena fire captain and Heights resident Roy Francis insisted, “The fire department is in the worst shape it’s ever been in. It’s gone down hill steadily.” Francis continued, “If the Fire Chief is doing his job at $96,000 for part-time work, Vos is not the guy to back him up.”

Others insisted the new chief should be able to pick his own administrator. Clark pointed out both the current interim chief and the chief due to take over in the fall had met with the analyst and wanted him appointed as quickly as possible. Clark continued to point out the position did not involve fighting fires or providing emergency medical care. It did involve maintaining a database and flow of information covering a variety of concerns.

At this point Councilman Brian Bergman weighed in, “There’s a falsehood out there we need to set straight. His salary will be $44,000. Anything over that is the cost of the benefits.” He continued, “The fire chiefs want to stick to operations. Carl will be doing HR processing, payroll, budgeting, purchasing and managing the paperwork. He’ll collect data and prepare budgets. ”

Finally Councilman Howard Vipperman pointed out, “Hiring a specific person at this level is not a council decision. A city attorney or fire chief is where a council should be involved.”

Mayor Layne Baroldi made a motion to create the position. Bergman seconded saying, “When I ran an operation with technicians and analysts, I wanted the technicians out there doing the work, not tied to a desk. Keep the analyst at the desk. It’s a structural difference in jobs.”

The rest of the council agreed with him.