The city of Perry recently made some changes to certain staff positions.

City Administrator Sven Peterson says one of those positions is the new Housing and Development Director that was formerly known as the Community and Economic Development Director. Peterson points out the position has been open this past May, but he wanted to change the position to Housing and Development Director now that the city has a better partnership with the Greater Dallas County Development Alliance to handle more economic development. Peterson believes this newer position will appeal to more people.

“Hoping to have a little more focus on that planning, housing, development side. Obviously housing has been a hot topic in Perry and all across Iowa/United States. So we are hoping to be able to find somebody that really can lead/manage and be accountable for all things housing development, compliance, permitting, inspections, all of that kind of stuff.”      

There is another new position with a Maintenance Superintendent position with the city. Peterson notes this position was born out of re-organizing the parks and recreation departments. Under the Parks and Recreation Director would be two assistant directors, one for parks and one for recreation, along with a third position is the new Maintenance Superintendent. Peterson talks about the main responsibilities of this position.

“We kind of break it into, putting out the fires from day-to-day of this sensor is out, this pump is out, what is wrong right now versus what could be wrong in the next five to ten years. So we can be more strategic and intentional with our future budgeting.”  

The City Council approved the job descriptions at their November 6th meeting and Peterson is hoping to have those individuals hired by sometime at the end of this month or next month.