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Jeffrey Foltz, the retired Yuba City official who recently led Grass Valley between its two permanent city managers, would return as assistant administrator under a proposal on the next City Council meeting agenda.
The appointment would come at a time when the city has frozen many vacant positions, including in the police department, and has asked employees to take days off without pay to help close a $740,000 budget shortfall.
Foltz would work part-time for the city on the complex lawsuit the city is waging against Newmont Mining Corp., the owner of an old mine shaft that is pouring millions of gallons of polluted water into the city’s wastewater treatment system, City Councilman Chauncey Poston said Thursday.
The pollution and the lawsuit, which is asking for damages, has cost Grass Valley millions of dollars and court dates in Sacramento are looming, Poston added.
Foltz has intimate knowledge of the suit, and “it’d be more efficient for the city” to hire him to bring the suit to a conclusion, Poston said.
“This is the guy who shepherded (the lawsuit) through when it was hot and heavy when he first came aboard in 2007,” Poston said. “He’s the right man for the job. ... We’re not hiring new staff to do normal work.”
City Administrator Dan Holler said he was recommending a rate of about $49 per hour for an estimated 75 to 100 hours, but the final hours and cost will depend on the litigation. There is no flat limit on the number of hours.
“The funding is already in the budget and will have no impact on the general fund deficit,” Holler said in an e-mail late Thursday. “It is also less costly than doing this as a consultant.”
The Newmont Mine lawsuit is on the agenda for a closed session of the council starting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 125 E. Main St.
The regular council meeting starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday, also at City Hall.
The Foltz appointment is on the consent agenda for the open meeting, meaning council members expect no discussion, and it would be approved together with several other items considered routine and noncontroversial.
The Union has requested the item be removed from the consent agenda so it could be discussed in public.
Foltz was the city’s interim administrator from March 2007 to March 2008, for which the city paid him about $136,000 — $85 per hour in the final months of his service.
His interim appointment was supposed to last six months, but it wound up taking a year before Holler, the manager of Douglas County, Nev., was named as Foltz’s replacement.
Holler’s yearly salary is more than $138,000.
In other matters at next week’s meeting, the city will:
• Hold a public hearing on spending about $62,000 to study economic development in the area of Idaho-Maryland Road and East Main Street.
• Announce that the Fire Department has been awarded a $28,000 cash grant from the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co.
• Pay $25,000 more for work from consultants Holdrege and Kull Consulting Engineers and Geologists, of Nevada City.
• Establish new pay rates for employees in the recreation and public works departments.
The agenda can be seen at TheUnion.com. No supporting documents for the agenda were available Thursday but are expected to be available later today on the city’s Web site, cityofgrassvalley.com.
To contact City Editor Trina Kleist, e-mail tkleist@theunion.com or call 477-4230.
The appointment would come at a time when the city has frozen many vacant positions, including in the police department, and has asked employees to take days off without pay to help close a $740,000 budget shortfall.
Foltz would work part-time for the city on the complex lawsuit the city is waging against Newmont Mining Corp., the owner of an old mine shaft that is pouring millions of gallons of polluted water into the city’s wastewater treatment system, City Councilman Chauncey Poston said Thursday.
The pollution and the lawsuit, which is asking for damages, has cost Grass Valley millions of dollars and court dates in Sacramento are looming, Poston added.
Foltz has intimate knowledge of the suit, and “it’d be more efficient for the city” to hire him to bring the suit to a conclusion, Poston said.
“This is the guy who shepherded (the lawsuit) through when it was hot and heavy when he first came aboard in 2007,” Poston said. “He’s the right man for the job. ... We’re not hiring new staff to do normal work.”
City Administrator Dan Holler said he was recommending a rate of about $49 per hour for an estimated 75 to 100 hours, but the final hours and cost will depend on the litigation. There is no flat limit on the number of hours.
“The funding is already in the budget and will have no impact on the general fund deficit,” Holler said in an e-mail late Thursday. “It is also less costly than doing this as a consultant.”
The Newmont Mine lawsuit is on the agenda for a closed session of the council starting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 125 E. Main St.
The regular council meeting starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday, also at City Hall.
The Foltz appointment is on the consent agenda for the open meeting, meaning council members expect no discussion, and it would be approved together with several other items considered routine and noncontroversial.
The Union has requested the item be removed from the consent agenda so it could be discussed in public.
Foltz was the city’s interim administrator from March 2007 to March 2008, for which the city paid him about $136,000 — $85 per hour in the final months of his service.
His interim appointment was supposed to last six months, but it wound up taking a year before Holler, the manager of Douglas County, Nev., was named as Foltz’s replacement.
Holler’s yearly salary is more than $138,000.
In other matters at next week’s meeting, the city will:
• Hold a public hearing on spending about $62,000 to study economic development in the area of Idaho-Maryland Road and East Main Street.
• Announce that the Fire Department has been awarded a $28,000 cash grant from the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co.
• Pay $25,000 more for work from consultants Holdrege and Kull Consulting Engineers and Geologists, of Nevada City.
• Establish new pay rates for employees in the recreation and public works departments.
The agenda can be seen at TheUnion.com. No supporting documents for the agenda were available Thursday but are expected to be available later today on the city’s Web site, cityofgrassvalley.com.
To contact City Editor Trina Kleist, e-mail tkleist@theunion.com or call 477-4230.
