One item absent from the final budgets Westminster adopted Monday evening was the salary for the position of interim director of planning and public works.
“We talked to three candidates for the interim position, but after meeting with other staff members, I determined we could do without an interim director,” said Mayor Thomas Ferguson.
The City Council decided the new city administrator and current staff would handle the responsibilities left by current director Thomas Beyard, who is being deployed to the Middle East in mid-June. The new position is expected to be filled in mid- to late July, Ferguson said.
This decision also meant cutting about $60,000 from the budget for the interim?s salary.
But the city administrator?s salary of $100,000 drew attacks from residents.
“You people are not clear-thinking,” resident Ruth Anderson said of the city?s decision to pay the new administrator six figures.
“The mayor of Frederick does administration and his salary is only $67,000,” Anderson said, referring to the mayor of Maryland?s fourth-largest city, William J. Holtzinger.
