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Keokuk Halts City Administrator Search

The Keokuk City Council has been trying to find the money to pay for a city administrator.  It's been unsuccessful to this point, so the active search to fill the post has been placed on hold.

Mayor Tom Marion said the city's finance committee met for more than an hour Tuesday morning but made no headway.

"They have not been able to come up with a source of funds for paying for that person, or even the search costs," said Marion.  "It's not on the back burner, it's probably on the middle burner."

Marion said it will probably cost $85,000 - $100,000 to pay the salary for a city administrator.

He said some of that money could come from leaving vacant a position in the police department and/or handing over the animal control operations to the local Humane Society.

Those ideas do not appear to be acceptable to aldermen so Marion said the city council members in attendance decided it would be better to step back and wait to see how the current and future city budgets play out.

Marion said the city council still wants to hire an administrator.  He expects the issue to surface from time to time in the near future, but there will be no serious action until the finances are resolved.

"They are also considering the possibility of informing the (mayoral) candidates for this fall's election that they might want to go to a part-time mayor mid-term, or any time in the term, if they hire a city administrator, so they could put people on notice for that," said Marion.

Marion said he will research whether the city council can reduce the role of a mayor mid-term. 

Jason Parrott is a former reporter at Tri States Public Radio.