Mayor Kim Ecklund faces another key hiring decision early in her second year as mayor.

In a Facebook post late last week the city said it is looking to hire a new city planner. In our opinion, it’s a major opportunity for Ecklund to really begin to set a direction for the city’s direction.

Planning, as we noted yesterday in this space, is often a Spaceballs-esque farce at the local level. We’re often working very hard in local planning departments preparing to possibly at some point do … something, we guess. The rub is that we employ planning departments but then contract with outside firms to handle things like comprehensive plans and zoning code updates. It begs the question why we need a city planner in the first place.

If we can’t articulate a benefit city residents see from the principal planner’s position, maybe we don’t need it in the first place. Let’s face it. Jamestown’s budget is one in which each position has to be justified each year. Those that don’t produce, given the scarcity of tax dollars available, should be cut.

If Ecklund and the City Council decide the position should remain, then Ecklund has an opportunity to hire someone in the image of the type of city government she wants to create. The job description for the position will provide some clues as to what the mayor has in mind, but that information hasn’t been released yet. A clear definition of the city’s principal planner is actually responsible for doing each day is important, because we know a lot of city residents have no clue what the person in that position actually does. Hiring outside consulting firms to build plans doesn’t say much to the day-to-day relevance of the planner’s position.

Ecklund has two opportunities – either eliminate a position that may not be needed or breathe new life into the planner’s position so that it pays dividends for city taxpayers. But if we hop back into Spaceballs’ Col. Sandurz planning mode of preparing to prepare, then shame on all of us.