River Bend Times

The West Liberty City Council made several changes to the City staff during its April 6 meeting, including swearing in a new City manager and naming an interim City clerk while considering how it will fill the vacancy going forward.

During the meeting, Mayor Ethan Anderson administered the oath of office to Lee Geertz as the new City manager. A City clerk for several years, she replaces David Haugland, who had served the city for more than 30 years.

“I believe City manager Geertz is the very first woman City manager,” Anderson said in the meeting.

To fill the City clerk’s post vacated by Geertz’s promotion, the council agreed during the meeting to name Sheri Hoffert, the deputy City clerk, as interim City clerk until the position can be filled permanently. The council noted that her pay would be adjusted to reflect the additional responsibilities.

The council said the clerk’s position will be posted and resumes and applications will be accepted. They are also refining the role of City clerk to make sure the position’s job description is in line with city and state laws. It was noted that the position’s role also includes responsibilities with the Finance Department.

Anderson said during the meeting that the council would have to consider how the position of City clerk is structured.

“And there's going to be, I guess, some kind of some options about how to structure this a little bit,” he said. “So the idea is to post the job per the City codes’ guidelines to move that forward. And then the job descriptions can be kind of finalized with a little bit more work.”

Geertz commented that there would be updates to the job description to ensure it meets all City codes.

“We would like to have some segregation of the duties of fiscal management,” she said in the meeting.

The council approved additional staffing for its electrical staff and ambulance services, filling the positions with individuals they are already familiar with. It also approved Tuesday’ s upcoming meeting as the final public hearing for its fiscal year 2024 budget in order to submit it prior to the April 30 deadline.