The city of Langley is considering changing its organizational structure.

The city council spoke for nearly an hour Monday night about the merits of hiring a combined city administrator and clerk position. Current department heads had plenty of questions about the recommendation, which was handed down by Chris Carlson, chairperson of Langley’s citizen-led Finance and Personnel Commission.

Langley currently has a mayor-council structure. Carlson pointed to the city’s “string” of poor audits, various Public Records Act lawsuits and management challenges as reasons to explore hiring a city administrator who would also fill the role of city clerk.

“It was the commission’s unanimous opinion that Langley would be better served with the hybrid city administrator structure and feel that it’s realistic to implement from both practical and budgetary perspectives,” Carlson said, adding that the hybrid structure would amount to about $40,000 more per year.

The majority of the council was receptive to the committee’s suggestion. Councilmember Thomas Gill, however, stood in lone opposition.

“This to me just puts a very bad taste in my mouth,” he said. “We elect people to be mayors of this city to run the city. That’s what they are supposed to do. They know that coming into it.”

In addition, he took umbrage to Carlson’s statement that there have been many findings from audits in the city over the last decade.

In response, Carlson said there have indeed been multiple findings, all having to do with internal controls. He explained that the city can define the separation of roles and responsibilities between the mayor and the administrator. He said it can be challenging for a mayor who doesn’t necessarily have the skills or experience needed to run a city to do the job full-time at part-time pay.

The mayor earns $55,000 a year. The average annual wage in Island County is $46,301.

“We have a very small city with a limited pool of talent. A city administrator can be hired from outside the city limits. A mayor cannot,” Carlson said. “And so you’re really locked into a very limited set of choices and a pool of talent to work from if you just have a mayor.”

He said to think of the new role as the chief operating officer of the city, a professional in public administration.

“To have that institutional knowledge carry through different administrations is going to be much less risky,” he said.

Councilmember Craig Cyr agreed with this notion.

“Our current mayor did not have the benefit of a warm handoff from the previous mayor, which really was not good,” he said. “Having continuity, I think, is going to be very beneficial to the city and that’s why I will be voting in favor of this.”

Some department heads, however, were more wary of the committee’s recommendation.

Director of Public Works Randi Perry asked about impacts to the city’s budget in making the change. She also questioned why the issue could not simply be resolved by separating the clerk and finance director positions, which was a previous recommendation made by the finance committee at the last council meeting.

Carlson said the split only addresses part of the issues that the commission identified.

“There is a general lacking of overarching citywide operational leadership and management communication … that would not be within the purview of somebody who is solely a clerk,” he said.

Police Chief Tavier Wasser also had questions.

“Why are we looking at an entirely new position when hypothetically we then have three positions unfilled?” he asked. “If we do not have a finance director, we do not have a clerk and we do not have a treasurer, why are we looking for a fourth position?”

Carlson replied that the committee is only recommending hiring a finance director and a combined city administrator and clerk position. He also said a city administrator could address “broader operational shortcomings.”

“We’re not trying to just replace the positions that were lost, we’re trying to drive improvements and evolution for the betterment of the city,” he said.

In the end, the council voted 4-1 in favor of allowing the Finance and Personnel Commission to do more research on the recommended structure including the administrator/clerk position and come back to the council with more information.

Gill, who voted in opposition, maintained that the decision felt rushed.

“This feels like it’s being pushed by somebody and I want us to have a measured understanding of what we’re talking about and what we’re doing,” he said.