Acknowledging City's Move Into 'Festival Business,' EGCC Approves Events Coordinator

As part of their mid-year budget review, at last night's regular meeting the Elk Grove City Council approved the creation of a new p...


As part of their mid-year budget review, at last night's regular meeting the Elk Grove City Council approved the creation of a new position that will have a salary range from $62,000 to $84,000 to help coordinate the city's roster of annual events.

The new position, which is initially being described as an events coordinator, is meant to help organize the various civic events the city has involved itself in including the long standing Western Festival, the Fourth of July celebration and the recently launched multi-cultural festival. Additionally the position will act as a liaison for the city's trail committee and other groups outside the city's purview.

Council Member Pat Hume said he was approached by Bob Gray of the trails committee who suggested the position to help that committee to accomplish their goal of connecting the city's disparate system of trails. Hume went on to say based on talks with city staff, the positions could also take on the the duties of coordinating city involved events.

Hume acknowledged that he initially thought the pay rate was to high but was satisfied after hearing the rationale from city human resources manager Laura Brunson. 

Brunson said her wage and job survey did not reveal any comparable job descriptions regionally or nationally based on the needs described to her. Consequently Brunson said to reach the salary range she looked at the current wages paid to city employees.

"I turned to our job families inside, internally and looked at all the classifications," Brunson said. She went on to say that aside from comparing it to similar jobs within the city, she compared it to the Cosumnes Community Services District's recreation director and based the salary range in part on that. 

"I agree with Mr. Hume that the pay might be a little high," Council Member Jim Cooper said. "It is a little bit in the higher range."

Vice Mayor Steve Detrick asked city manger Laura Gill to explain to the audience what she had briefed him on regarding the position. Gill said that staff time of two division heads, the police and city public information officers and an administrative analyst is used to do all the work for special events. 

"As we are starting to become more involved in the festival business, whether it be the Fourth of July or the multi-cultural or new festivals that have yet to be created, " Gill said, "we need to have a dedicated person to handle everything from coordinating sponsorship's to hiring vendors to making sure that folks are in place and doing what they are suppose to be doing."

Gill went on to say the proposed salary range "didn't seem out of whack because both of the division heads are compensated much higher than what is being proposed here."

Hume suggested and his council members concurred that the job title be changed to reflect the positions broader job duties.

In the addition to supporting creation of the position, the council unanimously approved the mid-year report that also included the creation of a new planning department position with the same pay range. The planning department position replaces the same position currently being provided by the city's planning department vendor, Pacific Municipal Consultants. 

"I think this is a prudent thing to do," Mayor Gary Davis said supporting creation of the events coordinator position. "It seems to me to make sense."








    

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9 comments

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know if the City of Elk Grove has a strict nepotism policy in place?

The city council approved a new position that no other city in the region has. How forward thinking of them!

Anyone who even slightly pays attention should be able figure out what is going on here with this "newly created position."

Anonymous said...

I was sure this wouldn't pass muster. After hearing that no other local or surrounding city/county have such a position, it was clear this was another boondoggle. I just wonder how this folks sleep at night spending our money without much regard. If the city of Sacramento does not have an events coordinator, why do we need one? I am concerned this positions will be used as a means to employee friends and relatives. I was also hoping the salary would be evaluated more closely. This salary range seems very, very high for someone deciding on balloon colors and condiment selections. We need to watch this position closely. Exactly what educational requirements or job history will be required?

Anonymous said...

Well as I said before they had their minds make up before the meeting so it would have done no good to go and complain. This is so sick...

Anonymous said...

UNBELIEVABLE!!! SIMPLY, UNBELIEVEABLE! What exactly will the educational requirements be? High school diploma required??
Very disappointed in this council. And if I may say so, Mr. Trigg seems uninterested and unengaged.

Anonymous said...

Well, this was Mr. Triggs first night, bur I agree he didn't seem to be engaged. I think we can give him a PASS the first night, but I will expect more after this .

Anonymous said...

It was Mr. Triggs first night so perhaps we should give him a break in not taking part in the deliberations. In moving forward though I will expeect to hear more from him before a vote is taken.

Now another question and off topic. Whatever happened to the Events Center on EG Blvd. that was to break ground in the Fall and open in the Spring? Maybe called THE FALLS.

Anonymous said...

There may not be positions of "Events Coordinator" but there are plenty of Trails/bike/ped coordinators just around Sacramento. Will be interesting to see what percentage of time they spend on various tasks.

Anonymous said...

Will be more interesting to see who the applicants are.......

Anonymous said...

What will most likely be more interesting will be the Applicants for this position.

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