After an impassioned discussion about Des Moines’ future and how best to utilize what little extra money the city has, a split City Council voted 4-2 to create a temporary full-time economic development manager position.

Marion Yoshino, who has been volunteering on a downtown business survey and other economic development projects, will become Des Moines economic development director.

During the nine-month contract period, the position will cost the city $70,512.

The funding will come from Business and Occupation taxes (B&O), which are bringing in more than was expected. If trends continue, excess B&O tax could bring in an additional $190,000 in funding.

Mayor Pro-Tem Dave Kaplan and Councilwoman Melissa Musser voted against creating the new position, saying while they felt an economic development manager was important, other priorities took a higher priority.

“I think this is a luxury we wish we could have,” Musser said. “Not a priority.”

Kaplan told the council that he reluctantly could not support it, saying there are a lot of competing needs for the city’s resources.

He said this is the first year revenue from utility taxes has dropped and considering all of the other places the money could be used around the city he could not support creating a new position.

Councilman Scott Thomasson, who was not in attendance at this meeting, said last week if the city had extra money lawmakers should look at reinstating a police officer position.

Other alternative uses for the money included restoring to a fulltime basis either the city clerk, administrative assistant in Planning, Building and Public Works, or the receptionist-business license clerk– all of whom are currently working 32 hours a week. Other possibilities include creating a full time personnel analyst position, fund capital projects such as street overlays or a generator for City Hall, or pay for a police department needs assessment/audit.

Councilman Matt Pina spoke out for the new manager, saying it can be a revenue generating opportunity.

“If we lose the momentum here it will be really hard to get it back,” Pina said. “(An economic development director) has the potential to set us up for long term benefit and growth.”

Councilman Dan Sherman said he didn’t feel nine months was a long enough amount of time, and made a motion to increase the length of the position to April 2012.

“If we are doing it, lets not do it half baked,” Sherman said.

The motion ultimately died for lack of a second, however several council members did agree with Sherman’s point.

Sherman said he wanted to give Yoshino enough time to really accomplish something, as well as give confidence to businesses she works with that she will be in Des Moines for a while.

An uncertainty for continued funding, as well as not knowing whether Yoshino would even want to commit to a longer amount of time, kept the motion at nine months.

However, City Manager Tony Piasecki said the Council will definitely be revisiting this again when Yoshino’s contract is over in April.

“There are signs the economy is improving,” Piasecki said. “Some businesses have weathered the storm very well. Those are the businesses we want.”

Thomasson also said last week he did not approve of creating a position and hiring someone without advertising it first.

Piasecki admitted it is not normal procedure to have someone in mind before creating a job, but Yoshino had been performing the job very well for the city already. He also said they were not creating a permanent position; this is basically a contract job.

Pina said she already has projects she is working on and he did not see any point to disrupting the momentum by doing a job search.