ARLINGTON — Council member Mike Hopson was the lone holdout in an otherwise unanimous vote to reinstate the assistant city administrator position that Arlington eliminated two years ago.
City administrator Paul Ellis advocated in favor of restoring the position, which ended in 2014, after previous city administrator Allen Johnson retired. The assistant city administrator position had been created in 1998.
“I know the hours you all work, so I’m glad to bring it back,” council member Jan Schuette said June 20.
Fellow council member Chris Raezer concurred, but was curious about how it would impact the budget.
“We have savings in the executive budget that we can apply to this,” Ellis said. “The impact to this year’s budget will depend on when we’re able to hire someone for the position.”
Ellis noted that finance director Kristin Garcia is already working to determine how the budgets for 2017-18 would be impacted and confirmed that the city is seeking to promote from within.
Although council member Sue Weiss expressed disappointment that the salary range wasn’t included in the meeting’s documents, Hopson voiced the only real objections to reinstating the position.
“I’ve looked at similar-sized cities, including Monroe, Lake Stevens and Mill Creek, and none of them have more than a mayor and a city administrator for their top positions,” Hopson said.
Ellis countered by pointing out that at least some of those cities don’t have their own fire or utilities departments, unlike Arlington. He elaborated that his own duties are greater than those of Johnson in the city administrator position, and need to be reallocated.
“Before Allen retired, I was spending a lot of my time on regional-level outreach,” Ellis said. “After he left and I took over his job, I kept on doing that outreach, in addition to all of his duties.”
Council member Debora Nelson backed up Ellis, reporting that she’d seen the impact of his outreach work in Arlington’s gains for Highway 531.
“We’re ahead of the game, while cities like Monroe are scrambling to keep up,” Nelson said.
After the meeting, Hopson told The Arlington Times that he was willing to be convinced, but the arguments made failed to do so.
“I’m open to a good reason for this position, but I didn’t hear one,” Hopson said. “It’s very expensive, and Paul Ellis isn’t assuming any additional duties. I knew it would pass, but I couldn’t vote for it. There’s no ill intent, but council meetings are not just for show. We need to talk about these things.”
