North Pole council splits over adding a $110,000 chief of staff with director job vacant

North Pole council members split Tuesday over whether the city needs a roughly $110,000 chief of staff in the mayor's office while its director of city services job sits vacant.

Mayor Larry Terch's proposed 2027 budget sets aside the money for a new position in his office. He told the council at its first budget work session that he isn't sure yet what it will be: a chief of staff, a city planner and grant writer, or an attorney who also writes grants.

"As new mayors come on, it takes them a year, sometimes two, to get up to speed as to what's going on in the city," Terch said. Someone in the mayor's office could help with day-to-day work, grant writing and the transition between mayors, he said.

Councilman Jordan Schuster said a city of 2,500 residents doesn't need a director of city services, a full-time mayor and a chief of staff. The last four directors haven't stayed long, he said, and he suggested reworking the director's job to help with grants and transitions between mayors instead. Councilman Santa Claus agreed, noting city code requires a director.

Terch said the council voted by resolution to hire a director, but his intent had been not to hire one and to make the city's utility and public works supervisors department heads. Those supervisors have been with the city 24 and 12 years. "If they don't know the tasks that they need to take care of on the day-to-day and the year-to-year, and they're needing a supervisor to inform them as to what they need to do on the day-to-day, we have bigger problems," he said.

Terch said he believed the director job was created under former Mayor Welch, with the intent that it would eventually become a city manager. The city is advertising it again, Councilman Thomas McGhee said.

McGhee leaned the other way. Department heads have been doing well without a director, he said, and the city might consider dropping the job and using the money for a chief of staff. But he said one of the director's duties under city code, managing design and construction contracts for capital projects, is "the one we can't do without."

McGhee also questioned paying the new position more than the mayor. The council voted Oct. 5 to set the mayor's salary at $24,000 a year with no benefits, starting with the next mayor. The job pays about $80,000 a year now, plus benefits. Terch called the mayor's job a political position. "I hope that the next future mayor is willing to accept less than what would be a normal salary to do the job," he said. "I can't expect though every employee that works at the City of North Pole to follow that same desire."

The $110,000 includes benefits. The plan, officials said, is to hire for the position outside the state public employee retirement system, saving about 22.5% in retirement costs, and offer some other retirement benefit, such as a 3% match.

Terch also floated making the job an in-house attorney. The city's outside attorney bills run $7,000 to $9,000 a month, or $84,000 to $108,000 a year, he said, and a chief of staff who was also an attorney could probably be paid $155,000 and "save a ton of money."

"I don't disagree with all of the testimony here," Terch said. "I think it's worth a discussion as to how we move our city forward and what's the best avenue."

The council made no changes to the budget at the work session.