Falls City council debates staffing restructure, moves to closed session on personnel

Falls City councilors spent an extended portion of the meeting debating a proposed management restructure and staffing plan before voting to enter closed session on personnel matters.

City staff reported multiple upcoming departures: Sandre, the deputy city administrator, had submitted a resignation and two other office staff planned to leave. Staff presented a proposal to eliminate the deputy city administrator title in favor of creating separate city clerk and city treasurer roles, reassign duties, and align salaries with comparable municipalities. The administration’s draft placed management wage ranges roughly between $53,000 and $72,000, while other entry-level or hourly positions (like the utility bookkeeper) were described separately.

Council members asked whether current staff workloads could absorb the work without new hires, how the budget would accommodate higher pay ranges, and how utility functions interplay with city administrative roles. Staff said some workload is currently absorbed by cross‑training but that the timing of resignations creates an opportunity to redesign job descriptions and hiring approaches. One council member asked about vacancy timing and recruitment difficulty; another noted that adjusting job classifications while positions are vacant may be the easiest time to implement change.

After discussion, a motion to move into a closed session to discuss personnel matters was made, seconded and approved. The council stopped the live stream and went into closed session at 6:53 p.m. for personnel discussion; no personnel decisions were reported publicly in the provided transcript segments.