Cap Put on Samul's City Manager Term

The City Council agreed Monday night to place a limit on the time Ronald J. Samul serves as acting city manager so he may return to managing the fire department.

The decision came after City Councilor Michael Buscetto III said he wanted a more definite idea of how long Samul would be asked to fill the position. Samul will be the acting city manager until the council appoints an interim city manager, who will oversee city affairs until the new elected mayor system goes into place next November. Samul replaced Martin Berliner, who retired on Dec. 10 but will still work for the city on a contractual basis until no later than Nov. 30.

The council previously appointed Samul to serve as acting city manager through the end of the year. The agenda item at Monday's meeting would have appointed him to the position "effective Jan. 1, 2011 and until such time as an interim city manager is appointed." Buscetto said he wanted to get a better sense of how long Samul, who is also the city's fire chief, would be asked to hold the job.

"He does have his own department to run," said Buscetto. "So with all due respect, we should give him a time frame."

Samul said that he had some pressing matters coming up, including putting together a budget for the fire department. However, he said he had discussed the issue with Mayor Martin Olsen and agreed that he could continue serving into early January.

"I told him outright I was not opposed at least to the first few weeks of January," said Samul. "There was pretty good confidence that by the middle of January at least there would be an interim in place."

Councilor Rob Pero said that the council is "well on [their] way" to finding an interim city manager. Buscetto introduced an amendment to have Samul's appointment as acting city manager go no later than Feb. 1. The amendment was accepted 6-1, with Councilor Wade Hyslop Jr. opposed, and the amended motion was accepted unanimously.