Council OKs contract with Kee

The Baker City Council approved an employment contract with incoming City Manager Mike Kee on Tuesday evening that includes a starting annual salary of $90,000.

Councilors voted unanimously on Aug. 10 to hire Kee, who’s worked as the Ontario Police chief since 1998.

Tuesday’s vote on the contract was 6-0; Councilor Milo Pope was absent.

Kee will replace Steve Bogart, who announced in late June that he will resign Sept. 23.

Bogart’s salary is the same as Kee’s (although Bogart, who was hired in January, will not work a full year).

Kee will start work in Baker City on Sept. 7. Bogart will assist Kee with the transition.

“I thank you for the opportunity. I’m very excited, my family is very excited,” said Kee, 52, who grew up in Baker County and graduated from Baker High School in 1976.

He said his family will stay in Ontario until their house is sold.

Previous city managers, with the exception of Bogart, did not have employment contracts.

That includes Bogart’s predecessor, Steve Brocato. Brocato’s salary was higher, however, at $96,816.

Kee’s contract does not affect the Council’s authority, as stated in the city charter, to fire the city manager at any time, with or without cause.

However, the contract does entitle Kee to severance pay in certain situations, depending on the reason for his firing.

Kee would not receive severance pay if he were fired following his arrest on a felony charge or, according to the contract, “any illegal act involving personal gain for him (or) involving defrauding, theft, or the taking of the funds of the City or the public at large.”

Kee also would forfeit severance pay if the Council voted unanimously to fire him for malfeasance in office or for unsatisfactory performance.

Nor would he be eligible for severance pay if he resigned voluntarily.

Kee would receive severance pay equal to four months’ salary — $30,000 — were he fired within his first year on the job but “otherwise willing and able to perform the duties of manager.”

Were he fired under those conditions after working for at least one year, Kee’s severance package would include at least four months’ salary, plus one month’s salary for each year of service, to a maximum of six extra months, or 10 months total.

The contract requires the Council, during its Feb. 22, 2011, meeting, to evaluate Kee’s performance, then to conduct an evaluation once a year thereafter.

In other business Tuesday, the Council voted 6-0 to approve a social gaming license for Stockman’s bar, 2028 Main St.

Social gaming licenses entitle businesses to allow their customers to play low-stakes poker and blackjack.

Stockman’s has a history of periodic problems with alcohol-related incidents — trends which coincide with the Council’s decision about whether to grant the business a gaming license, Police Chief Wyn Lohner told councilors.

In October 2006, Stockman’s owner Suzy He applied for a gaming license. Lohner, after noting that there had been more than a dozen alcohol-related incidents linked to Stockman’s in the past several months, recommended the Council reject the application. The Council did so, but invited the owner to re-apply in six months.

During that period the number of incidents at Stockman’s dropped to seven, Lohner said.

On March 13, 2007, the City Council granted Stockman’s a social gaming license.

In the following year the number of incidents there increased to 30.

In March 2008 the Council again denied Stockman’s application for a one-year license renewal, but agreed to reconsider the request in three months.

During that three-month period the rate of alcohol-related incidents dropped again, and the Council approved a one-year license.

And during that year the number of incidents again increased sharply, Lohner said.

Mayor Dennis Dorrah asked Lohner Tuesday: “How do we get away from the wave effect cycle?”

Lohner said Suzy He has created a compliance plan that was reviewed by Baker City Police and the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

During the past year, there has been a “dramatic decrease in calls for service” at the business, from 40 the previous 12-month period to 13, Lohner wrote in a report to the Council.

“Although I am not entirely confident Stockman’s will maintain this level of control in their establishment, I feel their improvements this past year should be recognized and rewarded with a social gaming license,” he wrote.

Also on Tuesday, councilors received an update on tests for cryptosporidium in the water supply from Bill Goss, who works for the Oregon Department of Human Services.

Goss told the council that even though the twice-monthly tests, which started this spring, have shown no sign of the parasite, the federal Environmental Protection Agency is requiring cities to treat their drinking water to remove crypto by 2014.

Crypto can cause a severe gastrointestinal illness which in some cases can be fatal to elderly people and people with underlying medical problems.

“This can be a chronic illness that can last for a long period of time,” Goss said.

He said the chlorine dioxide the city adds to its unfiltered water to kill other contaminants does not affect crypto.

The city’s preferred treatment is using ultraviolet light.

The estimated cost of installing such a system is $2.5 million. Goss told councilors that federal grants could be available to pay for the work, however.