Editors Note: This article was originally published in the March 6, 2024 issue of the Chronicle Progress. Some information may be outdated.
Bogue urges city officials to prepare for growth, hire someone to guide land use issues
Delta City Council members debated creating a new position within city government to oversee a variety of land use functions.
The discussion was introduced at the council’s Feb. 21 regular meeting by new councilman KC Bogue and followed the resignation of Travis Stanworth from the city’s Public Works Department. Stanworth had been the department’s assistant director, but he resigned to smooth his elevation to city fire chief, replacing Lynn Ashby in that role.
Bogue said he thought Stanworth’s resignation provided an opportunity to discuss creating a new role focused on land use issues in the city, a time-consuming function currently handled by Dent Kirkland, the city’s public works director.
Bogue said his view is that it makes more sense for Kirkland to spend more time on the city’s infrastructure needs and less time on planning and zoning-type work.
“My thoughts behind this is it would free up time for Dent to do public works as a public works director,” the councilman said. “Meaning utilities, services, water and sewer. Right? Maybe we could try to figure out some stuff to help improve our roads and sewer and that.”
The new position Bogue envisions would focus more on development issues, including land use, code enforcement, planning and zoning, ordinances and regulations.
“It would make it so it’s a one-stop city permitting service for P&Z, public works, fire department applications. It would also do some community and neighborhood development services, such as for low income, affordable housing and grants,” Bogue said. “Also help with policy and also with our legislative stuff coming up. Obviously we have a bunch of stuff to do in 2024 for 2025.”
The councilman said he previously misspoke when he said he would like Delta to hire a city manager to handle those issues.
“I think at the last meeting it was brought up city manager and that’s not the correct term. It would be a city planner or a community development director,” he clarified.
Bogue said he predicts major growth impacting the city in the near future, when a dedicated city planner would be in high demand.
Mayor John Niles said he wasn’t sure the timing was right to hire a city planner, particularly if it meant not replacing Stanworth.
“In my mind we have to back up just a little bit,” he said. “Because I think Dent needs an assistant.”
Kirkland took the previous week off and Niles used that as an example of a situation where the city might not have anyone backing up the public works director during an emergency.
Bogue said the city could simply hire a public works employee at a starting wage and move one of the current senior employees up to assistant, possibly freeing up some funds to help sustain a new city planner’s salary and benefits.
“I’m not saying get rid of that job. I’m saying that we really need to consider something different because, it has nothing to do with what’s gone on, but moving forward, we are growing,” he said, briefly referring to some human resource issues confronting the council recently, including voting to hire a third-party attorney to rewrite the city’s personnel code.
When asked for his thoughts on Bogue’s idea, Kirkland said he knew he needed an assistant and wished he could define the type of growth Bogue thinks is on the horizon.
“I can see some benefit to doing something like this,” he told the council. “But I wish I had a crystal ball to know what growth is. Is now the time to do this or do we wait a year and a half and see where we’re really at?”
Kirkland also noted the recent personnel problems.
“We, obviously it’s no secret, we’ve got plenty of internal problems that would be nice to get fixed before we’re adding people into the mix,” he said.
Though the item was just for discussion, Bogue said he would like to see some action started soon.
Councilwoman Betty Jo Western outlined the steps that needed to be taken first, including writing a job description, determining salary requirements, qualifications and what the city could afford.
Councilman Nick Killpack said he likes the idea of the city hiring a planner. His only concern, he said, was losing a position in public works.
“I really like the idea, I really do,” he said. “I like the idea of a planner and I think it’s something we should do. But I really worry about… taking a position out of public works.”
The mayor said he could see the need for such a role but was hesitant to hire someone until the new Intermountain Power plant is finished.
“I’d hate to hire somebody and then in a year from now say we need to let you go because we don’t have that much work,” he said.
Bogue said he was sure growth was on the horizon even if in just small ways.
“Like it or not, we are growing,” Bogue said. “It might be a little here and a little there, but we are growing.”
At the end of the discussion, the council agreed Kirkland should start looking internally for a new assistant. The city is also short a public works laborer, so it is short two people.
Council members also agreed to take nascent steps to write a job description for a new city planner for future discussion.
