ESCANABA — While no official decisions were made by the Escanaba City Council on how to fill the city clerk position during a special meeting held Thursday afternoon, the city will have more time to find a replacement for exiting City Clerk Lisa Glish than initially planned.

Glish, who submitted her intent to resign from the position on Aug. 10, has served as the city’s clerk since May. However, Glish has since offered to remain in the position until Sept. 28.

Glish’s hire was controversial, with both council members and the general public raising concerns over how the position was initially posted internally, Glish’s handling of other applicant’s resumes while serving as the assistant for City Manager Patrick Jordan, and the process used by council members to vote on her hire.

Early in the special meeting, city resident Jim Berthiaume, who initiated a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information about the internal job posting, took to the microphone to speak publicly on his feelings that the council should hire Deputy Clerk Tammy Weissert to fill the newly opened position.

“She already has her (Certified Municipal Clerk) certificate. You’ve got to remember, I don’t know if it was this council or a past council, but there was a council that actually put money in the budget to send her to school for her CMC certificate. So she obviously was worthy then, and she’s even worthy now,” said Berthiaume, who noted that training a different candidate would cost the city $4,000.

Berthiaume has been a vocal supporter of Weissert’s hire and it past meetings has noted that Weissert is his neighbor and they have discussed her work under Glish’s leadership. Council members were not surprised to see him at the meeting speaking in support of Weissert being promoted to the position.

Council Member Ralph Blasier, who called Berthiaume’s comments “easily predictable,” told the council that he entered the council chambers conflicted. He said he disagreed with Berthiaume’s claim that the process was flawed, which meant he felt the council could naturally move to hire Weissert, as she was the council’s second choice. However, if Berthiaume was accurate in saying the city’s process for Glish’s hire was flawed, then the city should begin the process anew, leaving Weissert as the clerk only on an interim basis.

Ultimately, Blasier decided not to make any motions on whether or not Weissert should be hired as the city’s clerk on a permanent or interim basis.

“I’m not going to move to make her permanent or interim until no sooner than Tuesday, and I’m going to reserve the right to do that, even though … no matter what I do it’s going to piss off two people on this council. I just don’t know which two to piss off yet,” said Blasier.

At the special meeting Tuesday, which was set to address an unrelated and extraordinarily large FOIA request, the council hopes to hear more information from the staff about what the needs are for a clerk, IT person, or assessor — a position the city has not had filled in the last three years, but will soon become an issue due to pending retirements.

It was noted by Council Member Michael Sattem, that Weissert may not even want to be considered for the position. Whether or not she is interested in the position will likely be addressed Tuesday.

“No matter who we hire, we are not looking at people. We are looking at positions right now. After we’ve figured out positions, then look at people,” said Council Member Peggy Schumann, who stressed it was important to have job descriptions that met the needs of the city.

Council Member Ron Beauchamp, who suggested the city FOIA for a list of qualified assessors living in the state, noted that he felt combining job positions like the city clerk and IT officer was beyond the scope of the council’s responsibility and was improper. By charter, the council is responsible for the hire of the city manager, the city assessor, assistant or deputy assessors, and the city clerk.

Glish was hired with the expectation that she would be serving as both the city clerk and the city’s IT officer.

“It’s not up to council to try to bundle these jobs … In my opinion all references to IT has no businesses being in this job application. It had no business being in there in the first place,” he said.

The issue will be readdressed at the meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 28 at 10 a.m. At that time, the city staff will bring forward a list of needs as well as a study on assessors across the state.