After acting as Hillsdale city manager since 2011, Linda Brown stepped down for medical reasons in October and will not have her contract renewed.
The Hillsdale City Council voted to terminate the automatic renewal of Brown’s contract at its meeting Monday. Without council’s vote, her contract would have automatically renewed for a year in May.
Acting Manager Doug Terry has filled her position since October. In March, Terry’s contract will expire, and the council will meet with the city of Litchfield -— of which Terry also serves as city manager — to discuss how much longer Hillsdale will require Terry’s services.
Council is also accepting resumes to temporarily fill the city clerk position until elections in November. Deputy clerk Michelle Loren has served as city clerk since January 2012, but the council decided to alleviate some of Loren’s duties since she doesn’t officially hold the position.
“The purpose is to fulfill that term of office until someone files a petition to run in November,” Terry said.
Councilperson Mary Beth Bail made a motion to appoint Loren as city clerk until November, but no one supported the motion.
“I didn’t second the motion not because Loren doesn’t have my vote, I’m just in favor of a certain process,” Councilperson Emily Davis said. “We told the city we’d do this a certain way.”
The council already told the city of Hillsdale that it would have a hand in choosing who will be clerk until November, so qualified candidates may submit resumes to the council for consideration.
In other business, Terry proposed he and the administration discuss the city budget with the Finance Committee and then present it to the council, instead of all the council members working on the budget together.
“We’re improving the efficiency of the budget process,” Terry said. “We want all of council involved [in the budget discussion]. This is how most municipalities approach their budget, I think it’s worth exploring.”
Until now, council members each contributed their own elements to the budget, but because each of the council members are on different committees, not everyone is always on the same page or knows what the other committees want or need.
“In the past, council has been very much into the details of the budget, but we didn’t have a uniform strategy — with this strategy, the Finance Committee will go into the details and the council will look at the big picture,” Councilperson Patrick Flannery said. “This way, the council will be the true approver of the budget and see the full strategy.”
The first public budget hearing will be May 18.
