Last modified: Sunday, October 28, 2007 3:07 AM PDT Officials laud city director By William Lundquist Argus Observer Ontario - Ontario City Manager Scott Trainor officially accepted the city manager position in Fountain, Colo. Thursday night, and, as promised, officially resigned from his Ontario position. The contract between Fountain and Trainor was approved at a special Fountain City Council meeting at 8 p.m., and soon after, Ontario Mayor Joe Dominick said, “the council received a letter of resignation from Scott.” Trainor will continue in his role as Ontario City Manager through November, Dominick said, while the city searches for his replacement. “Regardless of the reasons why people may speculate that I am considering leaving, I am happy to convey to them and you that it is really an opportunity that arose that I could not pass up,” Trainor said in an e-mail to the City Council. The Fountain contract provided some of the details of that opportunity. Trainor’s starting salary will be $125,000 a year, compared with the salary Ontario approved for him in July of almost $100,000. In addition, Fountain will put an amount equal to three percent of his salary into an approved 401A money purchase plan, and an amount equal to five percent into the city’s Section 457 deferred compensation plan, or directly to him if he prefers. Fountain will pay up to $7,000 of Trainor’s moving expenses, give him three weeks of paid vacation his first year and four weeks thereafter, and provide use of a city car. For Fountain, however, Trainor may be a bargain. Former Fountain City Manager Greg Nyhoff was making $147,535 a year when he left last year, according to an article in The Gazette newspaper in Colorado Springs. Trainor might have made more had he stayed in the running for the opening in Durango, Colo., a town of 16,500 people. Current Durango City Manager Greg Gaton said his immediate predecessor ultimately made $136,000 a year. He said the cost of living in Durango is high because it is in a resort area. Caldwell, Idaho, may not be in quite the same league as a resort destination, but its salary range for city managers is $115,000 to $135,000 annually according to www.idahocities.org. On the Oregon side of the Snake River, Baker City paid its last city manager $82,548, and recently approved a new salary range of $84,000 to $96,000, according to an article in the Baker City Herald. The Web site of the City of La Grande, a town of 12,500 people, lists its salary range at $92,000 to $110,000 for a city manager. Cities in the West may pay on the high end of the scale for city managers. The median salary in the United States for city managers was $88,695 in 2004, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Web site www.payscale.com listed the city manager’s salary in 2007 as $53,479 for Columbus, Ohio, $68,110 for Atlanta, Ga., and $146,311 for Ann Arbor, Mich. “Ontario has been very good to me and my family and it has been extremely difficult to even contemplate these other opportunities. We have a good council that has some exciting things on the horizon and a tremendous staff that can really help achieve them,” Trainor said in his e-mail to the City Council. “I’ve always thought Scott was just an A-1 person and an A-1 manager. He stood head and shoulders above anybody I’ve met in this job. I would hate to see him go. He’s been a real asset here.” Ontario City Councilman John Gaskill said in a phone interview prior to Trainor’s announcement he was stepping down. As for Trainor’s job search, Gaskill said sometimes an employee has to look into other possibilities. “There comes a time when a person needs to investigate opportunities, to challenge himself,” Gaskill said. Gaskill said Trainor will be missed. “It will be very, very difficult to replace Scott with another person of similar ability and traits,” Gaskill said. Gaskill said he was the only city councilman left from when Ontario hired Trainor. “We had a whole lot of applicants before,” he said.  He said besides Trainor, few stood out. Since then, he said, other cities had contacted Trainor fairly frequently to try to hire him away from Ontario. “I have nothing but respect for him,” said Gaskill of Trainor. “He’s been everything we all hoped for when we hired him, and more.” The news of Trainor’s planned departure set off an electronic standing ovation for him online. “I envy the town that gets you.” City Councilman Dan Cummings wrote in an e-mail, “At the same time, if there is any way or anything I can do to get you to stay, just let me know and I will try my best to accomplish it.” Ontario Parks and Recreation Department Director Kathy Daly was also complimentary toward Trainor. “I have worked under five city managers and you, by far, have given my department the most support we have ever had from a city manager,” Daly wrote in her e-mail. She thanked Trainor for the morale boost provided to city employees from his support, and praised his sense of humor and management skills.