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What do you want in a city manager?

GLADSTONE — Gladstone city staff, commissioners, and residents met with Jerry Richards, an executive recruiter from the Michigan Municipal League, Monday to discuss what the people of Gladstone felt were the most important qualities in the next city manager.

During the meeting with the city commission — which was held after Richards had met with the city staff and before he met with members of the community — Richards explained he would use information provided by residents and the commission to develop a digital recruitment brochure aimed at potential applicants. The document will include information about the city, opportunities and challenges the new city manager will face, educational and experience requirements outlined by the commission, and the potential pay scale for the new hire.

It will take around three weeks for the document to be completed, and once it has been approved by the commission, Richards will use it to advertise the position nationwide for about four weeks.

Richards will then evaluate applicants and hold phone interviews before having a closed session meeting with commissioners in mid-May. At that meeting he will present his list of most qualified candidates, and the commission will determine which and how many applicants will be interviewed for the position.

The names of the applicants being interviewed will be released in early June, with the interviews themselves happening shortly thereafter. Each individual interview will be open to the public and is expected to take an hour or more. The commission may opt to hold all of the interviews on the same day to avoid candidates interviewing later in the process to hear interview questions being asked of other candidates.

“Most of the time, if somebody’s working a job they want to give 30 days notice so you’d be looking somewhere in … July when someone’s ready to actually step their foot in the door,” said Richards, who recommended the commission select a candidate the same day as the interviews.

When asked what they felt would make an ideal city manager, commissioners focused less on education and experience and more on the personality of a potential hire. The commission wanted a candidate who has good written and verbal communication skills, is extroverted and willing to be involved in the community, is a leader rather than simply a manager, has strong budgeting skills, and is honest even if that honesty is unpopular.

Another major concern for the commission was the candidate know exactly what they were getting into as far as the size of the city and the nature of the area.

“They have to know where they’re moving to… They have to be familiar with the size of the community and our climate. We can’t have somebody from South Carolina coming in here, moving from a city of 50,000, and then they come up here because they saw snow twice,” said Commissioner Brad Mantela.

Education and experience were more fluid in the commissioner’s minds, with many commissioners raising concerns that highly experienced candidates that could be a good fit for the city may not have advanced degrees. After much discussion, the commission decided to seek a candidate with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, engineering, public administration, finance, or a like field or have significant relevant experience.

While the commissioners noted they would be willing to consider a candidate without a bachelor’s degree, they felt a minimum of three to five years of supervisory experience was a requirement for the position.

After evaluating the salaries of city managers in the Upper Peninsula and other parts of the state, the commission decided to set the starting salary for the new city manager between $65,000 and $85,000, with the option of writing stepped wage increases into contracts. The range is in line with other cities in the U.P.

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