The Town of Coupeville is currently without a planner after Mayor Molly Hughes fired Tammy Baraconi from the job March 18.

However, the vacancy will be short-lived as Hughes said she’s already recruited a new planner to start April 11.

Hughes announced during last week’s council meeting that she had to let Baraconi go and that she’d hired Owen Dennison, who is currently the planning director for the City of Snohomish.

The hiring and announcement came within two working days of Baraconi’s departure. The quiet and quick employee shuffle raised at least one eyebrow from the public. Resident William Lyle, who had been working on some property issues with Baraconi, said he was surprised when he came into Town Hall last Monday to find she was no longer with the town.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Lyle questioned why Baraconi was fired and why the hiring of the new planner wasn’t advertised or done publicly.

“Is it going to be transparent?” Lyle said. “Obviously not, the decision has already been made.”

Hughes said that the town isn’t legally required to advertise for open positions.

“The town’s personnel policies do not require that a job be posted publicly, nor does state law,” she said in an email after the council meeting. “As a council person, I have been through the process of posting a job description many times for various positions.

“You never know who will apply, if anyone will apply, or what their qualifications will be. This time around I chose to recruit a planner for this position and to look for skills and experience that were needed for our town and its citizens.”

The decision to hire Dennison wasn’t done entirely by Hughes alone.

“Yes, I recruited, but I didn’t do this in a vacuum,” Hughes said. “The council knew and I had two other council members interview him.”

When questioned by Lyle on why Baraconi was fired, Hughes said she will not discuss employee personnel issues.

“I won’t talk specifically about an employee’s performance or the circumstances regarding her departure,” she said. “Employees in the Town of Coupeville are hired and fired by the mayor.”

“The residents of Coupeville have no input,” Lyle countered.

“On an employee the town hired? I would agree with that,” Hughes responded.

Hughes said she’d rather focus on the positive in the situation, and highlight the incoming planner.

“I am so honestly thrilled with this candidate,” she said.

In addition to the City of Snohomish, Dennison has also worked for the City of Renton and for a private planning consulting company.

“He has vast experience with updating comprehensive plans, which as you know is on Coupeville’s to-do list,” Hughes said. “He also has experience with working an issue through a public process, staffing community board meetings, and is an excellent writer. Snohomish has a historic district, so he has experience with preservation and design review. He also has experience with code/policy updates, long term planning and the day-to-day operation of a planning department.”

“Even though he has worked with bigger cities and planning departments,” she added, “he fully understands that he will be a one-man show in Coupeville and he is looking forward to helping us with all of our planning needs.”

In the meantime, Hughes said that the firms currently contracted by the town to work on bigger projects like the hospital expansion are willing to help keep things running in the department until Dennison starts.