Kelso turned toward a new day as the council appointed Paul Brachvogel to the city manager position at the September 7 meeting. After receiving positive feedback regarding Paul’s performance from a wide array of area residents, agencies and businesses, the council decided to remove the ‘interim’ from Paul’s title.
I commented during the proceedings that having some stability in the city manager position could come in handy as various department heads approach retirement age. I was reticent to have a city manager that needed to get up to speed with the history and relationships in Kelso, and had to replace department heads at the same time. And it turns out, these concerns were reasonable, as we found out later this week, when we received notification of our finance director’s retirement.
Not only will Veryl Anderson retire in mid-November, but so will her longtime assistant, Cindy Keeney. At that point, they will have served Kelso residents for 40 and 32 years, respectively. Having Paul already in place will allow us to move much more efficiently to prepare for their departures and line up replacements who fit well with other staff. Having already changed the city manager and city planner this year, we will have replaced three of the city’s top managers within twelve months of each other.
