Mayor Looking for Next Step with HR Job

The Mayor of Saratoga is looking to explore different avenues and options when it comes to filling up the position of human resources director for the city. The City Council in Saratoga had recently taken a vote and decided it was in their best interest to terminate the current work contract that was in effect with a private human resources company. The City Council voted 3-2 to end the contract with Pinnacle Human Resources. The termination of the contract and end of the relationship with this company will take effect within 30 days. Last year, the City Council decided to set up a contract with Pinnacle so that they would manage over 325 of the city employees. The company assigned their own consultant, Joseph Lattanzio, to take the human resources role. However, city officials decided to dismiss Lattanzio from the position at the end of August.

The Accounts Commissioner, John Franck, decided to lead the vote for cancelling the contract with Pinnacle. Franck was not very specific when it came down to the reason why he called for this vote to take place but he did cite a particular section in the contract in which it states that the consultants at Pinnacle must keep all of the city’s records completely confidential and should not delivery communications on the city without receiving consent first. Franck said that he continuously complained about Lattanzio’s conduct before he decided to urge the city council to completely end the contract with Pinnacle. Franck says, “There’s potential liability issues here.” Franck feels as though the city should simply hire someone on a temporary basis to fill in the position of human resources director. He also said that he would easily be able to find someone to fill in the spot for this position if the mayor of the city was unable to do so. The mayor typically has the authorization to appoint someone to the position of HR director.

At this current point in time, representatives for Pinnacle chose not to common. In the meantime, the mayor says that he will continue working on a way to fill this position, even though the list of individuals who are eligible for this position hardly exists. The mayor feels it is absolutely necessary for the city to have an HR director because otherwise, the city could be at a serious risk. It is for that reason that he will be exploring different options to ultimately come up with the decision as to who will fill in this spot.