The Richland City Council will have a workshop tomorrow to discuss the city’s strategic plan and the process for evaluating City Manager Jon Amundson. After that they will have a secret, executive session to discuss litigation.

The city provided a one-page packet of information that has two sentences reporting that the staff has a draft of the strategic plan that it will discuss with the council.

A recap of what happened with Amundson’s review in 2022

After serving six months on the council, at the June 7, 2022, council meeting, Councilmember Theresa Richardson volunteered to lead or co-lead a subcommittee to evaluate the performance of City Manager Jon Amundson.

The offer came a couple of weeks after Amundson and Director of Community and Development Kerwin Jensen had been involved in obtaining a building permit for Richardson’s home addition over the objections of a plans examiner who feared that an underlying structure couldn’t support the concrete slab, the pergola and the outdoor kitchen planned for the top of it.

The plans examiner resigned, writing in his resignation letter, “We have let integrity fall victim to politics, permitting those with political power to influence how we react.”

“I’m proposing that I would like to be a part of the lead or co-lead or something like that. I have the time and a little bit of background that can keep it moving forward,” Richardson told the council which decided that she could serve with Mayor Michael Alvaraz and Mayor Pro Tem Terry Christensen.

On December 20 2022, the council voted to raise the city manager’s salary by eight percent, from $205,000 to $221,400 a year.

Matrix Consulting Group hired by the city to recommend improvements in the permitting process, reported in January 2023, low morale and high turnover in the permitting section of the Development Services Department and recommended, “….avoid political interference in the substance of decisions made by staff.”

Come to city hall at 6 pm on Tuesday, tune in at 6 pm on Cable Channel 192 or watch on Richland City View.