Personnel Committee Postpones Vote on Assessor Position
Left, chairman of the city’s personnel committee Michael O’Meara. (City-Times photo)
By Brandi Makuski
City leaders say they’d like to see a return of a fulltime city assessor position, but they’re not ready to approve it just yet.
Former City Assessor Jim Seibers left the job in late 2011 for another position outside of the city. Assessing services have been contracted out on an as-needed basis since. But now, staff members are having a tough time keeping up with the workload.
“I think we ought to go back to the way it was before this. The office doesn’t seem to be running as efficiently as it was before,” said Alderman Jerry Moore, a member of the personnel committee. “The staff there seems to be overburdened and waiting direction from a supervisor; having a part-time assessor is taking time because of the communication. I think we ought to go back to a fulltime position.”
Alderman Mike Phillips said he wasn’t prepared to agree with Moore until the committee was presented with the costs associated with reinstating the fulltime position.
“I’d also like to see some of the options out there; we haven’t had any definite numbers,” Phillips said. “If we were to contact other cities of our size and nature, like Superior and Lacrosse, that do have a contracted assessor and find out what their situations are, then maybe we could decide if we could fulfill, hopefully, a cost savings. I gotta know the numbers before I can decide one way.”
According to its website, the City of Lacrosse city assessor will earn a salary of $86,873.85 not including benefits in 2013. Including benefits, the City of Superior pays over $200,000 for their fulltime assessor, and Wisconsin Rapids pays its assessor $129,850.
Mayor Andrew Halverson said he wasn’t prepared to support either the fulltime position or a contracted assessor, saying the committee needed more information before deciding.
“I personally am only comfortable contracting while we maintain two fulltime positions within the office. The avenue we’ve seen with the current assessing staff is there are extreme workload issues- the intensity on the staff was clearly present,” Halverson said.
The mayor added if the city were to continue contracting the position, the assessor would need to maintain a weekly presence in the office and be prepared to assist the two fulltime staff members during busy times of the year.