SUNBURY — The hiring of Sunbury’s first city administrator has sparked a power struggle before Stewart G. Graybill’s first day on the job.

Newly elected Sunbury officials are protesting City Council’s decision to create the position, one they say will interfere with their responsibilities and may be illegal in changing the format of city government.

Graybill, the former Red Lion borough manager who was fired in September, begins his duties Monday. He will be paid $65,000 annually plus benefits, Councilman John K. Shipman said.

Red Lion Borough Council members did not say why they terminated the employment of Graybill, by a 5-1 vote, at a Sept. 14 meeting in the York County town.

While Shipman said Graybill’s hiring is long overdue, Mayor-elect David L. Persing is angry, saying the decision should have been left to the new council and that Graybill has been hired to handle duties that should fall to elected council members.

“I’ll guarantee he’s not doing any of my responsibilities,” Persing said by phone from a conference in Reno, Nev. “He’ll have a review before a year and, if nothing else, the new council will positively review his job responsibilities and they may be changed.”

Incoming Councilman Todd Snyder also chafed at the thought of Graybill taking on responsibilities previously left to elected councilmen.

“This person’s current job description looks to take on those duties (of elected leaders),” Snyder said, “and I’m not comfortable with that.”

But Shipman, a councilman for six years, and James Eister, a councilman for 10 years, dismissed the notion that a part-time board can run the city.

“This gentleman will be handling what should have been previously handled by council people, and I have to tell you, a lot of the things that should have been done didn’t get done,” Shipman said. “If council would have been able to get the things done that needed to be done, we would be in much better shape.”

Said Eister: “The city is a business. You need someone to oversee the business on a daily basis.”

Shipman said Graybill will report to the council as a whole and oversee the departments of finance, recreation, public safety and public works, but not the police department, which will still fall to the mayor. He also will be required to live inside the city.

Shipman said he did not attend the meeting during which council voted to hire Graybill.

But, he said, “I’m firmly convinced the city will not move forward without professional management. Can you manage the city in two to three hours a week? I don’t think so. We have well-intentioned people, people who want to do a good job, but the time limits don’t allow for it.”

Persing has long opposed the creation of a city administrator position, saying it amounts to an illegal change of format of city government. Sunbury operates under the Third Class City Code’s 100-year-old commission form of government that divides duties among four council members and a mayor.

Several municipalities, however, including Nanticoke and Shamokin, have employed by ordinance an administrator or city manager.

“They are interfering with the structure of government in the city of Sunbury, and I don’t think they have the public support to do it,” Persing said.

“I’m sorry to say he’s wrong,” responded Eister, who will remain on the council come January. “We’ve been working on this for two years now. It’s been no secret the city has been looking for a city manager. In the two years we’ve been looking, I haven’t heard anyone come to council and say anything.”

Shipman also pointed to the 2005 city-sponsored Future Search conference in which the position was greeted with widespread support by the conference’s 60 attendees.

“That was the No. 1 thing — professional management,” Shipman said. “If there’s one thing the last 20 years has shown us, it’s that municipalities with professional management thrive, and those that don’t stagnate and go backwards.”

Municipal managers are common elsewhere in Valley, including in Milton, Selinsgrove, Lewisburg and Danville.

“We have a 4-mill budget with no manager,” Eister said. “It’s foolish.”

Shipman said Graybill comes to the city with more than 10 years of municipal management experience. Efforts to reach Graybill were unsuccessful. Sunbury Mayor Jesse C. Woodring did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Woodring and Eister voted in favor of hiring Graybill as city administrator. Councilman Kevin Troup voted against it. Outgoing Councilman Mark Walberg, like Shipman, also did not vote.

“He wasn’t my choice of candidate,” Troup said. “I preferred another candidate. I liked his qualifications better. I felt more confident with the other guy. But I’m sure this gentleman is going to do fine.”

According to Shipman, the council looked at one other candidate, from Mount Joy.

Council had hired Robert Pauley, of Mentor, Ohio, in March as the city administrator, but Pauley withdrew his name after he had verbally committed to accept the position.