Kewanee’s city government has grown since the switch to council-manager government in the 1980s.
Complying with a growing number of state and federal regulations has challenged local officials. Meeting growing infrastructure needs with a tax base that isn’t growing as fast has also posed problems.
“The entire time that I’ve been on the council, Kewanee has considerably grown,” Mayor Gary Moore said.
As a result, Moore said, City Manager Gary Bradley has been “completely inundated” with the work load.
He said Bradley works long hours: “He very rarely leaves City Hall before 6 at night.”
So in an executive session, Bradley recommended to the council that an assistant to the city manager be hired, and council members supported the idea.
No vote on creating the position could be taken in executive session; that can only be done by the council approving an ordinance in an open meeting. Moore said the council could vote on an ordiance creating the new position within the next couple of council meetings.
Relieving Bradley of some of the day-to-day responsibilities of the city manager’s office will clear up his time to enable him to concentrate on economic development, long-range planning and other areas where a city manager’s expertise is required, Moore said.
“Personally, I have a lot of high hopes for this new position,” he said.
Last week, the city posted two positions on its website, that of public works manager, vacated by Kevin Newton, and the assistant city manager.
The posting listed qualifications and duties for both positions, and said the salary would be negotiated between city officials and the successful job candidates.
The mayor said that since the assistant would be working with every city department, the salary will be spread among the budgets of all of those departments.
