Colusa council setting its goals

Among the items that the Colusa City Council will address at a special goal-setting meeting on Tuesday afternoon is direction to staff about the ordinance that defines the role of the city manager.

Sources close to the situation have said the council may be ready to give Acting City Manager Randy Dunn the job permanently.

Those sources indicated that Mayor Tom Reische, Vice Mayor Greg Ponciano and Councilman Kirk Kelleher are in agreement on the matter.

Kelleher said Friday he does not know that to be true, and was cautious about discussing items that have been part of closed sessions.

"We really haven't talked as a group what we wanted to do," Kelleher said.

Reische was on vacation this week and Ponciano was ill and unavailable for comment.

Dunn said he had not been offered the job, but would take it if he could also keep the job as fire chief. That is in part because of his many years vested in the public-safety retirement program.

"I just want to help the city any way I can," Dunn said Wednesday.

In order to do that, the ordinance would have to be amended, raising speculation that a decision has been made and this is a necessary step.

Kelleher said it would be a good idea to keep Dunn on in at least an interim basis until the council can come up with a clear consensus about what it wants to do.

He would not say whether he felt that meant until the end of the fiscal year, which has already been discussed, the end of the calendar year or perhaps longer than that.

He re-emphasized that no decision has been made. When pushed on whether he believed a consensus has been reached, he did not affirm that and again said he was cautious about discussing closed-session items.

"I think Randy is doing a great job doing the daily business and saving us a lot of money," Kelleher said.

The public's part in this decision is now uncertain.

This council has said it wants the public "involved and engaged," and even has that as part of its goal-setting agenda for Tuesday's meeting.

Part of the recruitment process of a new city manager was, in fact, to include members of the public as part of the interview process.

A workshop to take up that issue in public was going to be held in January, but never happened. That decision apparently was made by the mayor in discussions with the acting city manager.

Dunn has not formally applied for the job, and said he had no intention of applying for the position.

He has been part of the process in his role as acting city manager, but said he has not been part of closed sessions in which he may have been discussed.