The Banning City Council last week unanimously voted to appoint Public Works Director/City Engineer Art Vela to the role of interim city manager, a position he has filled on an acting basis since earlier this summer.
“The agreement allows Mr. Vela the right to return to his previous position, should the council elect to terminate the interim employment agreement or go with somebody else as the permanent city manager,” City Attorney John Pinkney said at the September 9 meeting. “The terms and conditions are consistent with the terms and conditions that are commonly included in executive level employment agreements.”
Vela was first appointed to the role of acting city manager at a special July 10 meeting, taking the place of Police Lt. Robert Fisher who was appointed to the role in February of this year after the council placed City Manager Doug Schulze on indefinite paid administrative leave.
Vela will be compensated based on an annual salary level of $297,100. He will also receive the same vacation, sick leave, holidays, management paid leave, retirement benefits and health and welfare benefits he received as public works director. He will also receive an automobile allowance of $250 per month, according to the approved contract.
“The annual compensation reflects a 5% increase from the annual compensation Mr. Vela would receive if he stayed in the position of public works director,” Pinkney said. “The salary increase is $14,147, or 5%, which will be offset by the savings in the vacant public works director position.”
In addition to naming Vela the interim city manager, the council also unanimously voted to hire executive recruiting firm Peckham & McKenney to handle the search for a new permanent city manager for the city.
“I think that we owe it to the citizens to search and do a thorough search for a city manager,” Mayor Sheri Flynn said at the meeting. “[Vela] can apply and be part of that pool, absolutely, but I think we still need to go out and look.”
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Peckham & McKenney CEO Anton “Tony” Dahlerbruch — who has 35 years of experience in local government, including 12 as a city manager — said he would be the recruiter assigned to work with the city on its search.
“I joined Peckham & McKinney because, again, the culture we have [and] the service we provide, is unique among other firms,” he said. “We’re there to give back, and we do this because we care about what we do and cities being successful.”
Dahlerbruch said the search process generally takes three to four months from the time the contract is signed to the date the new city manager starts, but said it could be up to five months. He also suggested that the city encourage the selected applicant to take a break between jobs.
“Get the old job out of their system and be able to start fresh with you,” he said. “So, you know, maybe that means it’s five months in the end that would probably be the timeline to consider.”
The council also heard from the firm Ralph Anderson & Associates, but ultimately decided against going with them over concerns that the company’s reach was less expansive.
“I do have some concerns with Ralph Anderson & Associates, because they seem to be very entrenched in this area, and there’s a lot of, how do I say it, nepotism, I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine,” Flynn said. “Seems a lot of well, you know, you can go from Yucaipa to Lake Elsinore, and they just keep shifting them all around, and I don’t want to see that.”
The council is set to consider a contract with Peckham & McKinney at the next regularly scheduled meeting.
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