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City of La Crosse staff will be seeing some new faces around city hall after two resolutions around hiring and position creation were approved Thursday night by the Common Council.
Due to the retirement of current director of human resources David Buroker, Mayor Mitch Reynolds introduced Rebecca Franzen who was approved for hire unanimously by the council. Reynolds mentioned that Buroker was active in helping find his successor.
“I wanted to express my appreciation my deep appreciation for the job that Mr. Buroker has done to help lead our human resources department over the last several years,” Reynolds said.
Franzen was one of 32 applicants for the position. Her background is in manufacturing and government service.
“I am ecstatic that she is willing to join our city and lead our human resources department,” Reynolds said of Franzen. “She has an extraordinary zeal for service and for human resources. I think she’s a perfect fit.”
Additionally, the council approved the creation of a new position in the Parks, Recreation, Forestry, Grounds and Buildings Department: an inclusive recreation coordinator.
The resolution stated that the department determined the need for this position to continue to meet the needs of the entire community.
In recent years, the city has placed an emphasis on working with local indigenous people to coordinate programs such as Indigenous People’s Day Celebration and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Awareness Day.
The creation, and subsequent hiring, of an inclusive recreation coordinator is intended to further diversity and inclusion efforts in city celebrations, festivals and other events.
Councilmember Rebecca Schwarz sponsored the resolution.
“I just wanted to take note of the work that the parks department has made in doing so many events in our community that better show the diversity and the inclusive efforts that we’re making as a city; to really be a place that offers celebrations and events to everyone here in our community,” said Schwarz at the Finance and Personnel Committee meeting where the resolution was first approved.
“This position is a really excellent example of how we’re really working within our departments to better support those efforts,” Schwarz continued.
At the Finance and Personnel meeting, the resolution was amended to increase the pay range for the position. The initial hourly range was $26.33 to $27.79. However the amended resolution, which passed unanimously, offers a pay range of $27.12 to $35.58.