The City of Great Bend has a Human Resources Director for the first time in two years. Terry Hoff retired in December of 2015, but has been used sparingly for search committees and counseling since leaving the city.
Great Bend Interim City Administrator George Kolb announced at Monday’s Great Bend City Council meeting that Randy Keasling has been hired as the city’s HR Director.
George Kolb Audio
Keasling’s first day was Monday, December 4 after previously being employed at The Cedars, a retirement and assisted living facility in McPherson.
Keasling will be put to work on assisting with a couple of big hires coming up for the City of Great Bend. Kolb is serving a six-month contract as Interim City Administrator and will need a replacement at the end of his contract. The city is also in the process of searching for a new Police Chief following the resignation of Cliff Couch in October.
Following the riff between select city administration, council members, and the police chief, a management and compensation study was called for to be conducted on the police department. Many city employees in other departments voiced their concern of unfair pay too. With Keasling in place, the city will further examine what needs to be done for the compensation study for all the city staff.
In other city council news:
The council passed the motion to approve the purchase of 10 Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) from ZOLL Medical at a purchase price of $15,460.41. The motion passed 5-2 with council members Brock McPherson and Dana Dawson opposing. Both McPherson and Dawson wanted more information and questioned the need for 10 units.
The motion to adopt the ordinance for the quarter cent sales tax that takes effect on July 1, 2018 passed 7-0.
SRCA Dragstrip President Hank Denning reported on the 2017 dragstrip season in Great Bend. The SRCA lost two of their 10 races because of weather and had 4,666 total spectators.
The council also voted 4-3 to table discussion until the next meeting about rebroadcasting the council meetings on Cox Channel 20. Interim City Administrator George Kolb was not sure on all the logistics of posting the video recording to the television channel and recommended waiting for Community Coordinator Christina Hayes to be present before deciding on the added agenda item by McPherson.