The City of Green Park voted 4-1 last week to hire a part-time office assistant at city hall.

The board voted to hire Kelsey Moser for part-time office assistant at a rate of $20 an hour at its meeting Feb. 21. Ward 1 Alderman Carol Hamilton, Ward 2 Alderman Ron Slattery and Ward 3 Aldermen Joe Monteleone and Martin Finn were in favor of the hire while Ward 1 Alderman Michael Broughton was against. Ward 2 Alderman Matt Farwig was absent.

According to City Administrator James Mello, Moser has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in international business, businesses administration and human resource management. Her schedule would be flexible, with around 15 to 25 hours of work a week.

Typically the board does not make hiring decisions for part-time employees but Broughton, who is running for mayor against current Mayor Tim Thuston in the April 4 election, requested that it be brought before the board, also motioning to postpone the hiring decision until the board had looked at Moser’s resume.

“I think that this needs to be delayed … and in the interim period we get a copy of this woman’s CV and we get an accounting of the hours she’ll work, the days she’ll work,” Broughton said. “We’re (aldermen) responsible for the city … and we need to know about this stuff before we’re called in here to vote on it.”

Mello countered that since the position is flexible, there are not set times the assistant will work but that it would typically be Tuesday through Thursday.

Other aldermen did not agree with Broughton’s take, countering that delaying the hiring could cause Moser to seek employment elsewhere after the city had already spent several months trying to hire a new assistant in the first place.

“The question really becomes here are we going to give the city administrator some latitude on a part-time position? He’s given us an explanation for what qualifications this person has … What he’s presented to us seems to be a pretty good person,” Slattery said. “My concern in this kind of a situation is whether this person wants to wait that month and whether that person will go on and find a new job somewhere else.”

In all, Mello interviewed 11 first-round candidates. From there, four candidates were invited back for a second round and Monteleone, who is the board president, sat in on the interviews with the final candidates including Moser’s. Finn argued that Monteleone’s opinion should be enough.

“It would have been nice maybe to have (a resume), however we do have the board president who sat in on the interview and the way I see that is he’s representing us,” Finn said.

Broughton’s motion to postpone the decision ultimately failed from lack of a second and the board voted 4-1 to hire Moser.