Harrington council interviews treasurer candidate

HARRINGTON—City council interviewed a candidate for treasurer, met with a representative from the state Department of Commerce and discussed a relocation plan at the March 23 regular meeting.

Council began with the treasurer interview after receiving a letter of interest from Kelly Forman. Forman said she is currently working from home and would like a second job to fill more of her hours. She learned of the position from councilmember Joe Armand. She has yet to meet the current City Treasurer.

Forman has 17 years of experience in the field but does not hold an accounting degree. She has never held an elected position and has not used the Bias Program. With her current job she does provide data to government agencies, does balance sheets, but does not do income statements.

Mayor Jess Silhan called Genevieve Dial with the Department of Commerce Growth Management Services for a preplanned consulting discussion.

She said she’ll aide council “by providing assistance to jurisdictions trying to meet the requirements of the Growth Management Act (GMA). I'm assigned to Lincoln County, Stevens County, Ferry and Pend Oreille."

Dial will help get the Council in a good position to be eligible for CDBG and ecology grants.

She discussed at length the difference between large cities and others like Harrington, the changes in State law regarding critical area regulations and three options to fix Harrington's ordinance shortcomings (the needed Critical Area Ordinance). Councilmembers David Buddrius and Stephen Hardy raised questions and it became obvious that council didn’t want to relinquish control of the city to the county. Dial added a four option of documents submitted by other towns as models and crafting those to fit Harrington.

The next agenda item was the Anti-displacement and Relocation Plan, which is needed in order to be eligible for HUD grant and was unanimously approved.

"This is one of the pieces of the puzzle that you have to have in place in order to get a grant," Silhan said.

Other items on the agenda included Silhan announcing the hiring of Troy Crawford in Public Works and his potential remedy for noise in city hall by separating from the library.