News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The smile of a short-timer.
After 12 years on the job, Barbara Warren will retire at the end of this year.
Warren, 59, told the Sisters City Council at their Thursday, September 6, workshop that she intends to leave December 31, but she said she was willing to stay beyond that date if it takes longer than four months to hire her replacement.
"I'm ready to just take off and have some leisure time," Warren said. "It's a consuming job and I'm ready for some time off."
She said she and her companion Jim Hollon hope to spend a couple of years traveling.
She hasn't made particular long-term plans, but some kind of work is likely in her future.
"I'm not much of a hobby person," she said.
Warren said the highlight of her tenure is the building of a wastewater treatment facility in Sisters.
She said that getting that project off the ground was also her biggest challenge.
Warren's time also included a budget crisis and a conflict with the Sisters Police Department that led to the firing of the police chief, the unionization of the department and finally a contract for police services with Deschutes County.
But despite the stresses and turmoil that come with city management on any scale, Warren can't put her finger on anything that she really dislikes about the work.
"I really do like the job," she said. "In the time I've been here, I've never been bored."
Councilors debated whether to conduct their own search for a new city administrator or to contract position search services with the League of Oregon Cities.
Councilor Lon Kellstrom, who participated in the school district's superintendent search, advocated using the League to advertise for the position as widely as possible, then reviewing each of the applications in-house.
Kellstrom expects to receive a flood of applications from people eager to work in Central Oregon.
"It's going to be attractive and there's going to be a lot of applicants," he said.
The city council will begin its search immediately. The four month window may be tight, if there are as many applicants as Kellstrom anticipates. The council was concerned that it may be difficult to schedule interviews during the holiday season.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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