City Corporation Counsel Eliot Raimondo faces the same issue his predecessor Marilyn Fiore-Lehman did — shoehorning legal work and human resources work into the same eight-hour day.

Merging the corporation counsel and city ombudsman positions was a cost-saving initiative nearly 20 years ago at a time when the city needed to save every penny it could. Raimondo is proposing separating the corporation counsel and reinstating the ombudsman position to deal with human resources issues that Raimondo said derail many of his work days.

Council members’ biggest question with splitting the jobs is paying for the second position in 2024 as well as finding a qualified person.

Why can’t the city explore a regional solution? Mayor Eddie Sundquist said the city is seeing an increasing number of mental health issues and disputes between employees. It’s entirely possible other municipalities are having similar issues. Perhaps Jamestown could provide a service to its neighbors and help its operations as well.

It couldn’t hurt to ask.