Planning director Voyles to resign
City Planning Director Robert Voyles has announced his resignation, effective July 31, in a letter to be presented for acceptance by the North Little Rock City Council on Monday, according to the letter included in the council's agenda packet.
Voyles will mark his 26th anniversary Friday with the city government. Voyles is leaving his position to take a job in the private sector that he said in his resignation letter will "offer me part-time employment and something to allow me ease into retirement."
"I have tried each day to find ways of improving our City and the region," Voyles wrote in his letter addressed to Mayor Joe Smith, which was being forwarded to the City Council. "I believe during this time, the City team has had more successes than failures."
Smith hasn't yet announced any appointment of a new planning director or acting director to replace Voyles.
The Community Planning Department will add a city planner position and delete the position of assistant planning director when it next becomes vacant, according to new job classification legislation that is on the council's agenda for Monday.
Ads to find library director set to end
Advertisements seeking applicants for executive director of the William F. Laman Library System in North Little Rock will end Aug. 2, with an executive search firm to then make recommendations to the library's board of trustees, a city spokesman said Friday.
In May, the city approved the library system hiring Bradbury Associates of Kansas City to help with the job search after city officials said a city-run search was having trouble attracting qualified applicants. The job requires the new library director to have a master's degree in library science.
The library trustees voted in May to spend up to $18,000 from library funds to hire the search firm. The job advertises a salary range of $70,000 to $90,000 annually. The board doesn't meet this month.
The library system consists of the Main Library, 2801 Orange St., and the Argenta Branch, 420 Main St.
Longtime Executive Director Jeff Baskin died in September after being diagnosed with cancer just eight weeks earlier.
Wilbourne named chief city engineer
Chris Wilbourn, North Little Rock's Traffic Services director and former city engineer, has been appointed chief city engineer, replacing Mike Smith who retired in June, Mayor Joe Smith announced in a letter to the City Council.
Wilbourn, a licensed professional engineer, will have an annual salary of $90,000, Smith said.
"As director of the Traffic Department, he continued to assist the Chief Engineer with major projects," Smith wrote. "I have found his dedication to our City to be strong and his work excellent."
According to new job classification legislation on Monday's City Council agenda, the Traffic Services director title is being eliminated and replaced by the title of City Engineer-Transportation in the Traffic Services Department.
Metro on 07/12/2015