Top jobs still open in Bertram

January 10, 2013, 1:00 pm by Brenda Young

It may be some time before Bertram is able to fill two key roles in the city’s administration. City council members heard an update Tuesday night during a regular council meeting about the status of the recently vacated financial administrator and chief of police positions.

Mayor Dickie Allen told council members there have been approximately one dozen applications submitted for the job of police chief, and only a small number of applicants have responded for the job of financial administrator.

"Only two applications have been submitted for the city’s financial director,” Allen told the council. "We may have to back up and take a different direction. We’ve had 11 or 12 applications completed for the chief of police job, and the position doesn’t actually close until Jan. 11,” he said.

At the meeting, former mayor Winnette Morris gave her last update to the council reporting on the city’s current financial standing. When she took office in May 2010, Bertram had no financial director, and Morris worked in the dual capacity as both mayor and financial administrator to help regain a system of checks and balances amid controversy and tight budget constraints facing the city.

Morris resigned her seat as mayor two months ago in order to relocate outside the Bertram area. The job of police chief was left vacant last month when Ron Hall resigned unexpectedly saying only he wanted to work closer to his home in Hays County.

For more on this story, see next Wednesday’s Burnet Bulletin.