Wasco Council approves finance director contract, adds new signer to agency accounts

The Wasco City Council unanimously approved an employment agreement for the city’s incoming finance director and updated signatory authority for related agency accounts.

City Manager Scott Hobert presented the final draft employment agreement for the candidate, identifying the initial base salary as $150,000 and saying pre-employment checks and references had returned positive results. "The initial base salary is to be $150,000," Hobert said. He also told council members the candidate's target start date is next Monday, "on the eighth."

Councilmember Reyna moved to adopt the resolution to approve the employment agreement and Mayor Medina seconded the motion. The council approved the resolution by unanimous roll call.

As companion actions, the council adopted resolutions adding the new finance director to the authorized signer lists for the Successor Agency and the Wasco Public Financing Authority bank accounts. City staff explained the finance director must be able to access and move funds as part of the role’s duties; each of those resolutions also passed on unanimous roll calls.

The approvals clear the way for the new finance director to begin work and to be included among the city’s financial signatories. Council members asked for confirmation that pre-employment paperwork was complete and were told it had come back clean.

The council moved several procedural items at the start of the meeting so the personnel item could be heard earlier on the agenda. All motions and roll-call results recorded in the meeting were unanimous.