Council authorizes up to three seasonal cemetery hires and up to $600 for recruiting public-works director

Lebanon City Council approved several personnel and recruiting measures on April 30 to address imminent vacancies and seasonal workload.

The council moved to allow hiring of up to three part-time seasonal cemetery workers at $17 per hour, with staff reporting the estimated cost per seasonal hire would be approximately $10,200 if run for roughly 23 weeks at 20 hours per week; the transcript indicates roughly $34,000 was available in the budget line for seasonal/cemetery labor. Council members clarified hiring would proceed through an interview committee and require council authorization of finalists.

Separately, staff (Speaker 11) said they would withdraw from managing the public-works director recruitment amid social-media controversy and asked the council to authorize modest paid job-posting expenditures. Council members discussed options and authorized up to $600 in job-posting expense under delegated discretion to two staff/council liaisons (Speaker 11 and Bennett/RJ as identified in the discussion), recommending an initial $250 and the option to increase to $600 if additional posting channels were needed.

Council also discussed the city-accountant vacancy (Michelles pending departure), agreed the current job description may not match the duties performed and referred the position to committee to revise the description and recommend temporary coverage or restructuring before posting. Members emphasized the urgency of getting a qualified replacement while avoiding a rushed hire that would not meet the city's needs.

The council recorded roll-call votes for the seasonal-hire authorization and for the recruiting-spend authorization; staff will proceed with posting and the interview process per council direction.