Ronald Moore has resigned as the Kent city clerk after three years on the job.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a personnel matter so I can only say his resignation was a mutual decision, and we\u2019re looking for a city clerk with expertise in public records processes and electronic records management,\u201d said Derek Matheson, chief administrative officer, in response to an email about the reasons for Moore\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Moore, who started with the city in January 2013 after seven years as the Shoreline deputy city clerk, could not be reached for comment. He officially resigned on June 10.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Sue Hanson is serving as interim city clerk. She previously worked in the clerk\u2019s office as a records administrator.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe plan to advertise the position in a few weeks, perhaps with some help from an executive search firm,\u201d Matheson said about filling the position. \u201cOur goal is to have a city clerk in place this fall.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Moore replaced Brenda Jacober, who retired in 2012 after 37 years with the city, her last 21 as city clerk. The City Council gave Jacober a standing ovation at her final council meeting. When the city hired Moore for the job, the then 44-year-old told the Kent Reporter in an interview that he planned to stay in Kent for many years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will be the position that I do the same thing that Brenda has done and that\u2019s retire from,\u201d Moore said. \u201cI\u2019m planning on staying here for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Moore\u2019s job duties were described on the city\u2019s website as:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cPreserves the city\u2019s official records, maintains and provides accurate information through various media formats to meet the needs of city officials, the community and city departments.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In what was expected to be a related matter to Moore\u2019s resignation, the council held an executive session on June 7 to, \u201creview the performance of a public employee.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The council met for about 15 minutes in executive session and didn\u2019t take any action after the meeting when it reconvened in an open public session. Hanson filled in that Tuesday night for Moore as the city clerk at the council meeting.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
State law allows councils to review the performance of an employee in executive session. But \u201cdischarging or disciplining an employee, that action shall be taken in a meeting open to the public,\u201d according to the Revised Code of Washington section 42.30.110.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Matheson declined to comment about the executive session or answer if Moore was the employee under review. He declined to say whether the city asked Moore to resign.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t divulge the contents of the executive session other than to say we reviewed the performance of a public employee,\u201d Matheson said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Matheson said it was the first time the council had reviewed the performance of a public employee in the two years he\u2019s been with the city of Kent.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
City officials didn\u2019t formally announce Moore\u2019s resignation. Matheson wrote that Hanson would fill in for Moore, who had resigned, in his notes to the council as part of the June 21 council agenda packet. The city sent out a media release when it hired Moore three years ago.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Council President Bill Boyce said he didn\u2019t get a chance to talk to Moore before he left but he had heard Moore might be looking to do something different.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big loss,\u201d Boyce said in a phone interview. \u201cHe was a big plus and we were glad to have him be a part of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Besides keeping track of all city records, Moore sent out public notices about meetings, hearings and bids and worked closely with the council to provide agendas, minutes of meetings and other information. He was hired at an annual salary of $74,268. He worked as the Normandy Park city clerk for four years prior to going to Shoreline.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Moore didn\u2019t issue a resignation letter but signed a resignation agreement with the city. The seven-page document, which Matheson released on request by the Kent Reporter, doesn\u2019t address reasons for the resignation. The agreement states that Moore will be paid one month\u2019s salary and receive health coverage through September in return for a signing a statement of no wrongdoing by the city and a release and waiver of claims against the city.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ronald Moore has resigned as the Kent city clerk after three years on the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":7928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-7927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7927"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=7927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}