Hawthorne appoints Vause as permanent city manager

In a 4-1 vote, the Hawthorne City Commission opted to drop “Interim” from Interim City Manager Ellen Vause’s title.

However, the move did not come without controversy. During the commission meeting held on June 7, commissioners discussed a variety of possibilities associated with hiring Vause as city manager, and after extended discussions, the resolution was approved by a 4-1 vote.

All five of the commissioners were in unison over the hiring of Vause and gave reasons as to why she should be hired to the position.

The disagreement ensued over the timing of the hiring.

Commissioner William Carlton, being in full support of hiring Vause to the position, disagreed with the hastiness of the decision and voted against the direct hire.

“I wanted to wait until we received the financial statement from the auditors,” Carlton said. “[Sexton & Schnoll] promised to give us an audit by the end of June and I just wanted to wait and see where the city was financially before we did anything.”

Initially the city commission planned on the direct hire of Vause as city manager as well as the negotiation of a contract for the position. The initial contract for Vause is set to expire in September.

Vause said that the commission had to decide one way or another.

“We need to know what direction our path goes,” Vause said. “I’ve given the city eight months as Interim City Manager. I really feel that you either need to be able to say that this is the direction that you want to go, or we’re going to get someone else.”

Carlton did not want to discuss the employment contract with Vause and felt it was unnecessary until the financial records were disclosed in a few weeks. He held out on voting in favor of the move to make Vause the permanent city manager, favoring instead to table the decision until the results from the audit were delivered.

Within the first few minutes of discussion among the commissioners, as well as several residents, it became obvious fairly quickly that the city would not advertise the position, but the timing of the actual hiring needed to be deliberated.

“If we don’t know where we are, there’s no way we can go ahead and make intelligent decisions,” Carlton said.