West Wendover Mayor Donnie Andersen angrily vetoed the council’s approval to increase the starting pay of the now vacant Chief Financial officer position by 15 percent Wednesday.
The council approved the increase in Tuesday’s meeting after learning that no qualified applicants could be found to take the position for the salary being offered.
According to city records the previous CFO, Sondra Schmidt, had been making about $90,000 a year in salary and benefits. When faced with a 10 to 15 pay cut earlier this year, Schmidt resigned and took a post as the Chief Financial Officer for Humboldt County in Winnemucca. That position had been open since December. Schmidt interviewed for the position in the first week of April and was tentatively offered the job that same day. She official left Wendover by the end of April.
“I really didn’t want to leave,” Schmidt said at the time. “But facing a ten percent cut in pay versus a 45 percent raise at the new job, I had to think about my family first.”
Shortly after she left, the West Wendover city council approved spending $24,000 to a professional employment search agency to recruit her replacement.
In his veto letter reprinted below Andersen also cites the fee the council already spent in the search:
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August 3, 2011
To: Chris and Council,
I am exercising my right as mayor to veto the ordinance to adjust City Code 1-16, the 15% increase for the Chief Financial Officer position; regarding the City Council Regular Meeting of August 2, 2011 agenda item 6a. I made this decision in wages, yet we are willing to raise the city employees that have suffered a 10 % decrease in their wages, yet we are willing to raise the CFO position by 15%.
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Sondra left our city because of the money issue, yet now we are ready to raise the amount. We sat and told Sondra it wasn’t possible for an increase, but now it is.
We are paying and organization a large sum of money to find qualified people for the position. They took this on knowing the pay range we are looking at. If this could not be accomplished it should have been brought forward in time. We should not be throwing money away on this organization if they cannot keep their end of the deal.
Sincerely,
Donald H. Andersen
Mayor
City of West Wendover
When contacted for comment Wednesday Schmidt said she was not surprised West Wendover had difficulty in finding a CFO at the salary now being offered.
“It is a very specialized position,” she said “West Wendover is a unique town with a unique set of problems mostly being debt that might not simply be attractive to with the salary being offered.”
