Arnold to eliminate city administrator job

Arnold no longer will have a city administrator after council voted 3-2 on Tuesday to do away with the position and instead re-establish the position of city clerk.

Voting in favor of the change were Mayor Karen Peconi, Councilwoman Deborah Vernon and Councilman Joseph Bia; against were councilmen Phil McKinley and Anthony Sgalio.

The current administrator, George Hayfield, will keep his job for the time being, Peconi said, and is encouraged to apply for the new city clerk's position, but as soon as that clerk is hired the city will no longer employ an administrator.

“I would never want to tell a man that his job is gone and not to show up to work tomorrow,” she said. “So he'll keep his position for now, and I hope he applies for the new position.”

The change, according to Peconi, will benefit the city but won't really affect residents. The real difference, she said, is it will return some power to the council that was lost when an administrator's position was established.

“It's going to save the city around $10,000 in salary,” she said. “The only thing that the new person is not going to do is that he is not going to hire, and he is not going to fire.”

Currently, the city administrator's salary is $51,250.

The creation of a city administrator was done in 2014 after the state changed the third-class city code to allow it.

At that time, council members said the change was recommended by Delta Development Group, a consulting firm that assisted the city in straightening out its finances and avoiding Act 47, the state's Financially Distressed Municipalities program.

One of Delta's suggestions was to streamline city hall by hiring a manager who would have day-to-day oversight of operations and finances.

The biggest change going from a city clerk to a city administrator is that an administrator has the authority to make personnel changes.

City clerks do not have that authority under the state code.

An administrator's duties can include “appointing city employees on the basis of merit system principles and suspending, removing or otherwise disciplining employees,” according to the code.

McKinley, who in 2014 supported the change to an administrator, said doing away with the position was a bad idea, especially considering the city's close brush with state oversight of their finances in past years.

McKinley said in the three years before Hayfield was hired, the city's budget ran into deficit, while the three years after his hiring, the budget showed a surplus.

According to McKinley, those changes are a direct result of Hayfield's work.

“In 2015, we were told to hire a city manager who would be financially savvy enough to run the budget day to day,” he said. “I just think this is going to be detrimental to the city ... this will be financially stressful for the city of Arnold.”

Hayfield, who was present for council's meeting Tuesday, did not comment on the change.

The city clerk's position has not yet been advertised.

Matthew Medsger is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-226-4675, mmedsger@tribweb.com or via Twitter @matthew_medsger.