08/22/2019- The timeline for the City of Marinette to hire a new city attorney just got shortened. Acting city attorney Jon Sbar officially retired from his position February 7th but agreed to stay on with the city on a part-time contractual basis while Marinette worked to find his successor. However, Tuesday Sbar informed the Personnel and License Committee he’s submitted a letter to the Mayor notifying him his last day on the job will now be December 15th.
“The contract had a 60-day out clause for either side and I told the Mayor in the letter that I was exercising my option to terminate the contract attorney…I appreciate the opportunity to act as your contracted City Attorney post-retirement, but I feel like it’s time to move on to the next chapter.”
Sbar recommends the City bring on another full-time employee for the attorney role and says he’s willing to spend some time working with and training that individual. Marinette’s previous efforts to land a qualified candidate for the position were unsuccessful and Committee Member Rick Polzin says it might be time to try a different strategy.
“Advertising didn’t really yield us a candidate and it took a lot of time. We’ve got less than four months and I think we’ve had more luck going with a search firm, a recruiter, to find somebody. I really believe they’ve got to spend some time with Jon, so, I mean, you can’t run out the clock on this. We have to act quickly.”
The Personnel and License Committee agreed to schedule a special meeting for next week to discuss how to move forward with filling the vacant position. Sbar has served as the City Attorney since 2006.