Citizen Portal
Sign In

Council approves higher planning-manager salary range to aid recruitment

City Council of the City of Rolling Hills · November 25, 2025

Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts

Subscribe
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

After staff reported repeated failed recruitments for a permanent planning manager, the council approved an expanded salary range intended to attract senior candidates (roll-call recorded: Mersh yes; Wilson yes; Black no; Mayor Pro Tem Derringer yes; Mayor Piper yes).

The city manager told the council recruiting a planning manager has been unsuccessful across three recruitments and that the current salary range is not competitive with peer agencies. The manager proposed raising the top end of the range to better attract senior planners who could later become planning director.

Councilmembers discussed the role of contract consultants (Willdan), comparisons to nearby agencies, and tradeoffs between salary, work-life balance and recruitment. Several members said pay is only one factor but that a higher top step is necessary to recruit more experienced candidates; one councilmember voted no.

The council approved the salary-range adjustment by roll call (Councilmember Mersh: yes; Councilmember Wilson: yes; Councilmember Black: no; Mayor Pro Tem Derringer: yes; Mayor Piper: yes). Staff said they will relaunch recruitment with the new range and may target additional candidates; they will return with recruitment results and any recommended contract adjustments.

Ending: Council approved the new salary range; staff will resume recruitment under the new schedule.