GENTRY — Concerns were raised Monday night by a few council members over the job description for a combined city position which includes duties as an animal control officer, code enforcement officer and community service supervisor.

The job is being vacated by Warren “Bud” Norman, who has accepted a position as animal services manager for the city of Rogers.

Interviews of the approximately 20 applicants who responded to the city’s advertisement of the open position were scheduled to begin Wednesday evening.

Councilwoman Janice Arnold suggested that it would be good to consider and update the job description now before someone is hired.

“I haven’t seen the job description,” she said, explaining that she wanted to be sure the job description matched the council’s expectations. “Wouldn’t this be the appropriate time to change this?” she asked, suggesting hiring be delayed, if necessary, to consider and possibly make changes to the job description.

“We want someone who shares our philosophy regarding code enforcement,” said councilwoman Janie Parks.

Mayor Wes Hogue said he viewed the hiring process as an administrativetask rather than one for the legislative body. He pointed out the city’s need to move forward with hiring a replacement because of the animals in the city pound and because of code issues which will likely soon arise because the grass is growing again.

Hogue agreed that any changes to the structure of the position should be made before someone is hired.

“If the council is not happy with the structure of the job, now is the time to change it, before someone is hired,” Hogue said.

At the same time, Hogue cautioned the council against taking up matters related to any employee’s performance in open council session.

“There’s a right place to deal with employee performance and a wrong place,” Hogue said. “Employees have a right to expect to be treated fairly. Matters relating to their job performance shouldn’t appear in the newspaper,’ he said.

Hogue told council members he would put the job description for the position in council members’ boxes at city hall on Tuesday for them to consider.

If changes are needed, he suggested they call a special council meeting before the job interviews begin on Wednesday.

The closed interviews are to be conducted by the mayor, police chief and members of the personnel committee, which includes two council members.

Community, Pages 2 on 04/07/2010