HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Great Bend City Administrator Kendal Francis will be hired as the Hutchinson City Administrator, pending the approval of his contract by the Hutchinson City Council in their meeting on Tuesday.
According to the contract as printed in the meeting agenda documents, Francis will start in Hutchinson on January 1, 2023 and receive a bi-weekly base salary of $6,730.77 and a one time payment of $10,000 for relocation, housing, down payment assistance and related incidentals.
The City also is going to contribute three percent (3%) of Francis' base salary on his behalf to a deferred compensation program of his choice.
He will also receive a $500 a month vehicle allowance to use his own vehicle for city business and a $100 a month cell phone allowance.
Francis has worked in municipal positions since at least 1994. According to his LinkedIn profile, he was a wastewater treatment plant operator in Beloit from 1994 to 2007 and foreman of the water plant from 2007 to 2009, before being named Director of Water/Wastewater Operations in March of 2009 and holding that job until January of 2014.
He then became City Administrator in Lakin for a year and a half, then Coffeyville for not quite three years, before coming to Great Bend in July of 2018.
Interim City Manager Gary Meagher has been serving Hutchinson since Jeff Cantrell's contract was not renewed in mid-May.