City's director of public and government affairs resigns
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on January 28, 2016 1:52 PM
The city's director of public and government affairs, Kim Laverick, formerly known as Kim Best, has resigned from her position with the city.
Her resignation was made official on Dec. 4, 2015, and was only recently disclosed publicly at the most recent Goldsboro City Council meeting.
"I have not replaced that position on purpose," said City Manager Scott Stevens.
Instead of hiring another director of public and government affairs, Stevens said the Information Technology department had requested an additional staff member to help manage the city's social media websites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
"One part of the director of public and government affairs position that Kim (Laverick) was doing, one that I know just takes a constant effort, is the social media piece," Stevens said. "Somebody's got to look at that, as well as what all the departments are doing, and we have a number of people -- six or eight throughout the other departments -- that are doing various things on social media, and I'm not trying to stifle that, but I still like having a group or somebody that is sort of making sure the content there is appropriate, and that somebody is watching comments and responding to those."
Stevens recommended that the City Council reclassify Mrs. Laverick's former position from director of public and government affairs to one that would be a social media help desk position.
This reclassification would result in a drop in pay of $20,000 for anyone who assumes the new role.
The minimum pay grade for Mrs. Laverick's position was roughly $57,000 per year, while the new position will only be paid a minimum of $37,000 annually.
It will still be a full-time position that would be reallocated form the city manager's office to the IT department, and would allow the city to trim fat from its budget expenditures.
"I think you have to keep it updated. I think our citizens expect that," said Mayor Chuck Allen.
The IT department has requested the position for three straight years, which was called to the attention of the council by District 2 council member Bill Broadaway.
"I think this gives us options in the future, also, because we have that $20,000 still available that we had been budgeting in the past," said District 6 council member Gene Aycock. "I have no problems with it."