With Monterey taking steps to establish a city administrator position, town officials want to reshape the existing cultural administrator role.
Discussion among aldermen in recent weeks has repeatedly returned to the future of the cultural administrator position. Mayor Alex Garcia said the town likely cannot fund both positions.
“Budget restrictions won’t let us have both,” Garcia said. “We can’t afford to have two different positions making that amount of money. We can’t have both. We can’t afford to have both, so it’s going to be one position, and it’s going to be a town administrator position.”
The cultural administrator currently oversees responsibilities such as managing the Depot Museum and organizing community events. While some debate had emerged over whether to retain or eliminate the position because of the value it brings, Garcia said the board has largely moved past disagreements by shifting its focus to forming a new position that will be designed to take on some of those responsibilities.
“The current cultural administrator has been taking on a lot more roles of a city administrator, and that’s the way we’re going,” Garcia said. “So, we had a cultural administrator assistant, and that position has been, that person has been transferred to another department in the city. So, we are going to redistribute some of the duties into that position. It will be renamed.”
Garcia said the town had posted the assistant position, but the town’s Civil Service Board has requested that it be re-posted. Garcia said the town cannot officially move forward with anything until state legislators approve the charter changes and the city administrator position.
“We are going to have to have a work session to hash out the duties of the, whatever we are going to call it,” Garcia said. “We are also going to have to hash out the qualifications of that position so we can get it back out and postes, so we can get somebody to fill that spot.”
Garcia said he encourages residents to ask questions if they have concerns about what the town is doing.
“If people are confused, please reach out,” Garcia said. “We’re not trying to do anything that’s not above board. We’re just trying to make the town a better place.”