Eric Buckman

GLADSTONE — Gladstone officials will be looking to fill the shoes at its helm as City Manager Eric Buckman’s impending retirement was announced at Monday’s Gladstone City Commission meeting.

The city will first open up the position to internal applicants, likely as an interim role at first — which is how Buckman started.

Buckman has had a long career with the city. He began as a water department employee in 1986 and then moved up to superintendent of the water and wastewater department about six years later. In 2016, when the then-city manager was dismissed, Buckman was appointed as interim city manager. After serving in that role for a little over a year, he entered a brief retirement that didn’t last.

He was again named interim city manager in the summer of 2019, after another city manager was fired and Public Safety Director Ron Robinson acted as manager for a month. Buckman was approved for the full-time role in November 2019.

The city manager’s role is to supervise city administration, include working with all department heads; participate in regular meetings of the city commission; and communicate with other parties that deal with the city — entities like the Delta Area Transit Authority, the Delta Solid Waste Management Authority, contractors, other municipalities and counties.

When Mayor Joe Thompson first brought the subject to the commission Monday, he said Buckman intends to retire this year and discussion of a succession plan was in order.

“What I would like to do is post (the job) internally first and see what we get, you know, for candidates and then, if we have to, eventually we could go outside the city,” Thompson said. “But I think it’s important to give city personnel opportunity to advance.”

Commissioner Judy Akkala said it may be wise to seek an interim manager for a 90-day trial period first, “so that if someone is chosen from inside, it gives them the opportunity to decide, ‘is this something I want to do?’ And it also gives the commission and other folks time to decide.”

The notion of looking internally first was generally accepted, though City Commissioner Steve O’Driscoll said he’d like to cast a net just slightly wider while still keeping it in the vicinity. He remarked that contenders from too far away should be excluded, noting that a person from Wisconsin with an impressive resume probably wouldn’t be a good fit because they lack a deeper understanding of the city.

“While I like the idea of internal candidates, I specifically really like local candidates, and I wonder if we could expand to having local candidates rather than just internal, because Escanaba has a hierarchy of middle management that may aspire to be a city manager,” O’Driscoll said. “There’s a great number of people working for city, county, township, very close by that may have an interest, and they would certainly fit the bill of ‘local.'”

He added that while internal applicants should still be given “bonus points,” better candidates nearby could be disqualified from the opportunity if the commission only looked at Gladstone city employees.

The commission brainstormed about how to form a job description and starting salary. Commissioner Robert Pontius raised the question of whether the job would even be attractive to existing department heads.

Buckman relayed that the Michigan Municipal League ranks lead lineman, electric superintendent and city manager as the three positions that are usually highest-paid within a city.

The commission unanimously passed a motion to direct the Personnel Subcommittee of Akkala and Thompson to put together an outline — with job description and starting salary — for the internal posting of the city manager position.

Other commission business Monday included:

— Waiving a requirement for city utilities on a property to be developed. The owner of 209 S. 27th St. intends to build a home on the property, and city ordinances require that city water and sanitary sewer services be utilized for improvements that require building permits on property within the city. However, due to the property being landlocked with no public right-of-way nearby, it would be “costly and burdensome” for city infrastructure to reach the lot, so the planning commission recommended the waiver, which will be in effect for two years. If construction of the home is not completed in two years, the waiver will expire.

— Appointing Jennifer Harding to the planning commission. Harding’s application states she went to law school with a focus in land development and has been a realtor for 15 years. The planning commission unanimously recommended her appointment, which comes after John Noreus’s retirement. Harding’s term will expire in October 2026.

— Declaring Sept. 15-21 as “See Tracks? Think Train Week” at the request of Canadian National Railway Company.

— Approving an amendment to the marina renovation. Coleman Engineering, the main contractor for the project, will hire Flotation Docking Systems to subcontract for plans on the gangway and floating pier. Additional costs are not to exceed $4,200.

— Authorizing disbursement of funds for the wastewater improvement project. This is Draw No. 39 for payments to Staab Construction and C2AE and totals $12,455.