Council unanimously approved the creation of the director of community development and court administrator positions. Former Building Official John Beisert now fills the community development role, and former Court Clerk Kaitlynn Wiener now fills the administrative role.
City Manager Heather Neeley said the new titles and job descriptions were established to reflect comparable positions in place within many similar small city governments. She added that Beisert and Wiener were chosen to fill the roles due to their institutional knowledge and the additional work taken on by both staff members. No salary adjustment was associated with either personnel change.
“John is already doing this. ... He’s doing everything. He’s doing the planning and zoning; he works on annexations; he works on code,” Neeley said. “I think that it’s only appropriate that he has a title that reflects what he actually does.”
According to Neeley, Beisert has worked for Oak Ridge North since 2012. As community development director, Beisert's responsibilities now include long-range planning, building and project inspection, code enforcement, development review and other city planning duties.
Neeley also said Wiener’s work has exceeded the scope of a clerk position in running the city’s municipal court since she joined the city staff in 2016.
“Kaitlynn runs the court by herself; I mean that is one of the most self-sufficient departments,” Neeley said. “She works with the judge and the bailiffs, and she runs the court by herself. She’s an administrator.”
In addition to those personnel shifts, council also approved a new government organizational chart that groups all city employees into four main sections under the direction of Oak Ridge North residents, council, the mayor and the city manager. The new structure includes an administrative services category headed by the city secretary and finance director as well as a planning and development category headed by the community and economic development directors. The final two categories include the existing public works and police departments.
“My vision for how the city runs is admin, planning and development, public works and police,” Neeley said. “It just kind of worked out that the way these fit I think breaks down perfectly into four different departments.”
