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Medford resource director starts Jan. 10 By DAVID PRESZLER The city of Medford has hired a new human resources director to replace Linda Mustain, who retired Nov. 30. Douglas G. Detling will start work for the city Jan. 10. Detling has been personnel manager for the city of El Centro, in Southern California, since 1995. "All four people on the interview panel had him at No. 1," said City Manager Michael Dyal. Dyal, Mustain, Assistant City Manager Kathy Davis and Finance Director Jef Faw sat on the panel. Dyal said Detling, 51, struck him as a sharp person with good listening skills and professional maturity. He said that impression was confirmed by his references. "People that we called, they were universally very high on him," Dyal said. Detling is a native of Redding, Calif. He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from California State University at Chico and a master's in public policy from the University of California at Berkeley. He worked as a reporter for daily newspapers in Redding, Chico and Hayward, Calif. He also spent 15 years working for the San Francisco Bay area's regional planning agency, the Association of Bay Area Governments. Detling will get a starting salary of $60,824 to oversee a department that includes two other employees, according to city officials. Mustain took over the city's personnel department last year, replacing Charles Van Deusen. Van Deusen was placed on administrative leave for disciplinary reasons in October 1998 and later resigned. The 58-year-old Mustain has been with the city for 16 years. She has been working as a temporary employee since her retirement to help the city with the transition to a new director. Mustain said she retired to spend more time with her family, most of which lives out of state. "It was the right time for me," she said. Mustain said she enjoyed her year as the department head and her tenure with the city. "This is a great place," she said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA