The Perry City Hall returned to full staffing Monday night when the Perry City Council made appointments filling two administration positions vacated in September. Paula Rychnovsky of Perry was appointed Perry city clerk, and Abraham Cardenas was appointed Perry compliance officer.
The council’s personnel committee interviewed about a dozen applicants for both positions. The committee is composed of Perry City Council members John Andorf and Dean Berkland and Perry City Administrator Sven Peterson.
“John Andorf and I and Sven interviewed these applicants,” Berkland said at Monday’s council meeting. “We had some wonderful applicants for this position. It really made it hard for us to choose one. Paula came to the top right away. She’s had experience in the past, so we’re tickled to get her. We’re excited to have Paula.”
Andorf echoed Berkland’s praise of Rychnovsky, who will move to city hall after 15 years as administrative assistant in the Perry Police Department.
“We were very fortunate to have such good candidates for the position,” Andorf said. “I look forward to working with Paula and think she’ll do a good job.”
Peterson spoke briefly about Rychnovsky’s transition between the two departments of local government and gently teased Perry Police Chief Eric Vaughn on the city hall’s successful poaching of one of his best employees.
“This’ll work out well for us and for the police department,” Peterson said. “Eric is still pretty upset with us, but Paula will be transitioning from the police department over to city hall, so it won’t leave an entire void over there until they get that position filled. She’ll also be helping train the new person down at the police department, so we’ll be sharing her for a little while.”
“On your budget,” Vaughn quipped to general laughter.
Various duties fall under the authority of the city clerk, including taking and publishing minutes of city council meetings and maintaining city records. The clerk officially certifies and authenticates a wide variety of acts and measures, and the clerk’s office issues licences and permits. Some election duties also fall to the city clerk.
Rychnovsky has prior experience in city government, having served as the Rippey City Clerk and the assistant city clerk in Mount Ayr. She will take up her city clerk duties immediately, starting Tuesday, Dec. 20 at a salary of $45,000 for the 2017 fiscal year and $48,000 for fiscal year 2018.
“I’m happy the council has given me this opportunity,” Rychnovsky said. “I’m pretty familiar with how city government works, so this will just be a little larger scale of operations.”
The council also appointed Abraham Cardenas of Perry as the city’s compliance officer and at the same time hired him as the city’s building official.
“We were lucky to again have a number of good candidates for this position as well,” Andorf said. “Looking at the whole package, Abraham just kind of came to the top.”
Cardenas was unable to attend Monday night’s meeting, but Peterson told the council the new building official and compliance officer took a degree in business administration from Iowa State University. He has experience as a surveyor and currently manages a construction crew.
As the city’s compliance officer, an appointed position, Cardenas will be responsible for enforcing the Perry Code of Ordinances, which governs nuisance abatement, junk and junk vehicles, grass and weeds, snow removal and similar matters.
Cardenas comes to the job of Perry building official, a hired position reporting to the city administrator, at a time when the city has ramped up efforts to encourage residential housing development by recently approving a scheme of property tax abatement. Cardenas will be busy issuing building permits and conducting building inspections and will also oversee the city’s recently established regime of rental inspections.
In addition, Cardenas will serve as administrative secretary for both the Perry Planning and Zoning Commission and the Perry Zoning Board of Adjustment. The planning and zoning commission hears all requests to review plans, plats or re-plats of subdivisions or re-subdivisions of land within Perry and a two-mile corridor of the city. The commission also reviews and comments on any planned improvements to streets and parks.
The zoning board of adjustment hears all citizens’ appeals of the building official’s decisions.
Cardenas’ appointment comes with an annual salary of $40,000, with room for raises as he acquires certification in various phases of inspection. He will start work Dec. 30.
The previous city clerk and city building official tendered their resignations in September.
The city of Perry needs to inform residents and new residents about grass clippings and what days the compliance officer goes around and checks people’ residences about height of grass and so forth. I missed cutting my lawn for one week. I was sick and am a new resident. The compliance officer told me they send a flyer with water bill in April. What if someone moves here after the date in April or they do not receive flyer with water bill? The city of Perry compliance officer cut my front yard and sent a bill for $100. I think the city of Perry should let people know about these codes in a better way. Maybe put a flyer at the Post Office so new residents will see it when they put in a change of address, or a simple door knock would be nice. For people like me who are disabled and had no information sent to them, I think you should address this better. The compliance officer was already on the property, so how hard is it to take four minutes and knock on the front door? Very upset with city of Perry.