PORT TOWNSEND — After months of lamenting the human-resources shortage at City Hall, Port Townsend City Manager John Mauro brought good news to the City Council workshop meeting this week.
He announced two major hires.
City Finance and Technology Director Nora Mitchell, who retires March 1, will be succeeded by Connie Anderson, Sequim’s deputy director of administrative services.
The new position of Parks and Recreation Strategy Director will be filled by Carrie Hite, someone Mauro said he’s been courting for the job for the past year.
Hite and Anderson’s salaries are $130,897 and $131,676, respectively.
Mauro pronounced himself “thrilled,” “grateful” and “lucky” to add the two to what he calls the team sport of city government.
Planning for the future of Port Townsend’s parks and golf course is a high priority on the 2022 work plan, a lengthy document Mauro presented to the council last month and again this past Monday night.
Hite, 58, has had a place in Port Townsend for some time, even as she has been parks and recreation director for the city of Redmond for 2½ years. She had initially offered to help Mauro recruit for the parks-strategy director position. He replied that he wanted her for it.
“It’s exciting to me because it’s a large visionary position, working with the community,” Hite said in an interview.
One of the many projects she’ll work on after she starts April 1: the golf course.
Hite’s understanding is that it “needs some vision around how to repurpose it,” so her task is to engage Port Townsend residents and remake the municipal course into “something that’s loved by the community.”
Master-planning the Mountain View Commons campus and planning for the future of the swimming pool there will be on Hite’s agenda too.
“I know aquatics is something people value and love and want,” she said.
Anderson, 57, will start her new job March 16 and said she’ll continue living in Sequim for now.
Working for that city, “I have learned and grown,” she said.
“It’s hard to leave my Sequim family,” but this is a move forward, career- and salary-wise.
“I’m wanting to be part of solutions, and finding ways to solve problems,” said Anderson, who’s been with the city of Sequim for 15 years.
Among Port Townsend’s ongoing problems — called “challenges” in public meetings — are the gaps in police, development services and other city department staffing.
Port Townsend’s to-do list, aka the 2022 work plan, is loaded with projects big and small. An affordable housing development with a $1.3 million state grant behind it, a new public library program and a dog park shelter are a few of the items the City Council discussed this week.
“I’m currently working to hire six to seven police officers,” Port Townsend Police Chief Tom Olson told the council; he seeks both entry-level and lateral hires.
His department is relying on overtime pay and help from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office to cover 25 or more shifts per month, Olson added.
“Our response time is still good,” he said.
Pamela Martinez, the city’s new Director of People and Performance, called the current labor market the toughest she’s seen in 15 years of work as a recruiter. Department heads such as Olson are getting creative in their tactics, she added.
The city is also seeking a Development Services Director, aka a planning director, to replace Lance Bailey, who left in December to take a job in Monroe. The Port Townsend Library is looking to hire a Youth Services and Outreach Manager and a Library Assistant substitute.
The finance department needs a network administrator, and the Police Department needs a Community Services Officer.
Job listings as well as the 2022 work plan can be found on the city’s website, www.cityofpt.us. While “Job Opportunities” is a link on the site’s home page, the work plan can be found in the agenda for last Monday’s City Council meeting.
To read it, go to the Government menu on the home page, then Agendas and Videos and look under 2022’s archived meetings to find the Feb. 14 workshop meeting agenda.
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Jefferson County Senior Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
Carrie Hite.
Connie Anderson.
