Pleasanton council approves city clerk, deputy clerk and economic development officer
By Roger Sims, Journal staff
PLEASANTON – The Pleasanton City Council on Tuesday, Oct. 13, was able to address a problem that has been dogging the city for weeks – uncertainty about who would be the city clerk.
After the council conferred with Mayor Mathew Young in closed door sessions, including those with two applicants, Young and the council emerged into open session and appointed Dakota Holding as the new city clerk. Holding, who currently works in the Linn County Appraisers Office, is expected to take on her post on the week of Oct. 26.
However, in order to appoint Holding, they first had to pass a resolution that declared that Young's previous appointment was either unfit or unable to perform the job. Former deputy clerk Morgan Watts was still technically the mayor’s appointee, but he did not withdraw her nomination.
As deputy clerk, Watts had been handling clerk duties since Candy Houtman resigned three and half months ago.
When it became apparent that she would not be selected for the city clerk post, Watts resigned as the council meeting on Oct. 5 was finishing up. Her resignation was effective immediately. Despite her resignation, the council voted to approve the resolution on a 4-1 vote with Alex Wills voting against the measure.
The council also approved Young’s appointment of Missy Scheurmann to deputy clerk. Scheurmann is also city treasurer.
In a separate interview, Young said that that the council had at some length discussed Holding’s appointment and decided that she was the most qualified candidate of all applicants. The consensus building appeared to eliminate a situation where the council would reject his appointment.
In that interview, Young explained his reasoning for asking the council to create an unpaid economic development officer and appoint Erin Hinds to that post. He said that over several months Hinds has approached him about ideas she had about things that could be done to make the city more attractive to new businesses while encouraging current residents to stay and making the city more inviting for new residents.
At the Oct. 13 meeting, he said that he wanted to empower Hinds to speak on behalf of the city in her quest to draw more industry and businesses.
“One of the things that several of the cities around us have is they have more businesses, that means more tax revenue coming in,” Young said. “More businesses means more tax revenue, sales tax and so forth. If we had that then our mill levy can remain lower.”
“Every time I talk to her, she has another idea rolling through her on what can happen and help the community and everything else,” he said as he introduced Hinds.
Growing up in Las Vegas, Nev., and moving around to other cities, Hinds said she had a sense of what needed to happen to make Pleasanton more attractive. She also said she was already working with some city residents to develop fundraising ideas. She said those events would cost the city nothing but bring in money.
When asked if she had experience writing grants.
“I haven't written grants, but I’m a good writer,” Hinds said. “I’m not concerned about my abilities.”
The council approved both the ordinance creating the unpaid position of economic development officer and approving the appointment of Hinds to hold that post. Both were approved unanimously.
In addition to the hiring of city clerk and deputy clerk, the council also approved the hiring of a public works department employee.
The council also heard Councilmember John Bowley read a statement in response to a charge two weeks earlier by former city administrator Teresa Whitaker at the Sept. 28 council meeting. Whitaker charged that during a meeting in late August Bowley said that she had been fired from her post, when she actually resigned in 2023.
She demanded that Bowley retract his statement and give her a public apology.
However, Bowley countered that upon reviewing the recording from that meeting it was apparent that he had never said what Whitaker charged him with. He demanded that she offer an apology to him.
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