ONEONTA _ There are four applicants for the city code enforcement officer job and nine for the position of personnel director.
The applicants are scheduled to take civil service examinations this month, according to former Personnel Director John Insetta, who has been assisting the city on a part-time basis since his retirement in February. Former Code Enforcement Officer Peter Friedman also retired in February.
The window for applying for the department head positions, as well as the required examinations, has closed, Insetta said Tuesday.
The city will select the new department heads from among those passing the civil service exams, First Ward Alderman Maureen Hennessy said.
City officials would not release the names of those who are eligible or who have signed up for the civil service examinations.
The personnel director examination will be held Saturday in Utica.
"Those marks will be back quickly," Insetta said.
The code enforcement office examination will be held May 31 in Oneonta, though it could be six weeks before those results are in, Insetta said.
Those eligible to take the examinations were selected from a larger pool of applicants based on qualifications, education and experience.
"It's a mixture of city residents and people that are from the outside," he said. "The professional and practical experience is pretty diverse."
House up for city job
In other city personnel matters, Jeff House, whose downtown developer contract with the city expired April 30, is gunning for a full-time job in the city's engineering department, according to several sources at City Hall.
House on Wednesday would not confirm or deny he is seeking to fill the vacancy left by Bruce Amadon's retirement.
"I can't really comment on that," House said.
Amadon was the city's housing rehabilitation specialist who retired last year. However, he has stayed on with the city on a part-time basis.
Second Ward Alderman Paul Robinson said his committee will be making a recommendation on Amadon's replacement after it meets May 16. The Common Council could act on it as early as May 20, Robinson said.
Amadon will likely stay on as a part-time employee until the end of the year, Robinson said.
"We are doing more work and more streets than ever before," he said.
Robinson said House is one of two applicants. He did not release the name of the second applicant, but said he or she was from Oneonta and is not a current city employee.
House on Tuesday had his downtown developer contract renewed for May while the city lines up a replacement. That replacement is expected to be named within a month, Mayor John Nader said.
Tom Harrington, who is doing business as HP Holdings Consultants, and Dana LaCroix are interested in the downtown developer contract, which has typically been renewed annually since 1998, according to the city Purchasing Office.
Their proposals will soon be reviewed by a team of evaluators that will include the Finance Committee, Robinson said.
Hennessy, Robinson and Seventh Ward Alderman Lizabeth Shannon are on the committee, which has a different makeup after this week's Common Council meeting.
On Tuesday night, Nader reorganized the committee structure of the Common Council, merging the duties of the Personnel Committee with the Finance, Operations and Legal Affairs Committee.
Robinson, who like Nader is a Democrat, is chairman of the new Finance, Operations, Legal Affairs and Personnel Committee.
Fifth Ward Alderman Rodger Moran, a Republican who stepped down from the Personnel Committee earlier this year because of a potential conflict of interest regarding his application for code enforcement officer, was removed from the Finance Committee by Nader.
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