CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council wants to ask voters in 2012 to eliminate the city treasurer position, but in the meantime the council is directing staff to bring the matter back on the next agenda at which time the city's finance director is expected to be assigned the duties.
The city treasurer spot, currently held on a temporary appointment by City Clerk Melissa Swanson, hasn't been permanently filled since 2006, and there hasn't been any interest in it until six candidates sought the appointment earlier this year.
However, the council balked at making an appointment last month after Council member Judy Thein questioned the job description, which she didn't feel was relevant.
Based on the council's concerns, interim City Administrator Steve Albright and city staff researched the job description, which he told the council at its March 10 meeting was included in state statute and therefore couldn't be altered at the council level.
That left them with three options, he said.
The first is to put a measure on the 2012 general election ballot to eliminate the city treasurer position. Albright said voters in 2006 turned down changing the city treasurer and city clerk jobs from elected to appointed.
He said the second option was to appoint one of the candidates who applied after the council vets them in an interview process. Albright said that, in choosing an individual, the council could set its own basic requirements, and additionally suggested the right person should have a background in public finances.
The third and last option was to have city staff continue to cover the job, he said, adding that Swanson receives no compensation for the additional duties.
“I consider this somewhat of a political-type decision,” so Albright said he wasn't making a recommendation, just giving options.
Staff could live with any of the three, with Albright encouraging the council to choose a qualified person. “It's a lot of work for $300 a month.”
Council member Jeri Spittler asked about having the duties be assumed by Finance Director Michael Vivrette. Albright confirmed that Vivrette is already covering the financial duties included in the city treasurer's job description.
Albright added that most cities have done away with elected city clerk and treasurer jobs because people who get elected often don't have the required knowledge, such as municipal finance for treasurers.
Vice Mayor Joey Luiz said he'd also found in his research that cities were doing away with the elected positions. He referred to one of Thein's concerns in a previous meeting that the job description gave the candidate powers they may not be qualified to have.
Luiz questioned if they could change the position in the general election. Albright said he didn't think the description could be changed even then. He said voters would have to decide to eliminate it.
A person getting elected without the required knowledge was “the internal concern” for staff, Albright acknowledged.
Thein said she believed the city needed to eliminate the position. “I'd like to pursue that but what do we do in the interim?”
She said all six of the recent candidates are good people, but that didn't necessarily mean they were qualified, pointing out that none of them had municipal finance experience.
“We haven't utilized this position as a treasurer in 30 years” because the finance director already was doing the job, Thein said. She wanted the duties to stay with the finance director, adding that it will also save money.
Councilman Curt Giambruno was concerned about the language of the job description, which allowed the treasurer to appoint a paid deputy, with that job also being able to make other paid appointments. “It was wide open,” he said, supporting the job's elimination.
Mayor Joyce Overton said she also wanted the duties to go with the finance director.
Albright said appointing Vivrette to the duties wasn't on the agenda so it couldn't be done at the March 10 meeting, but they could bring it back at an upcoming meeting.
Luiz said he agreed with Thein and Giambruno regarding their concerns about keeping the position as it stands, and said he was in favor of putting it back on the ballot to ask voters to eliminate it in 2012.
He moved to choose the first option of the 2012 ballot measure, which Giambruno seconded and the council approved 5-0.
The council also directed staff to bring back the appointment of Vivrette on the next agenda.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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