‘Full meal deal’ selected for city manager search
July 1, 2010
By Tim Pfarr
Interim manager Rob Wyman will apply for job
The city entered into a contract with the recruiting firm Prothman and Associates to find its next city manager. The process will conclude in mid-August or early September. Interim City Manager Rob Wyman said he plans to apply for the position.
Prothman and Associates offered three different levels of involvement in the recruitment process, and the City Council chose the most extensive option — which it referred to as the “full meal deal” — at its June 1 meeting with a 5-1 vote. Councilman Rich Crispo dissented; Councilman Sonny Putter was absent.
The city will work directly with the firm’s president, Greg Prothman, during the hiring process. In choosing the most extensive recruitment option, Prothman will work with the city from candidate identification to final interviews.
Along the way, Prothman will also screen candidates at various levels, hold candidate workshops, perform background checks and coordinate candidates’ travel plans during the interview process. However, the council agreed that it preferred candidates from Washington.
The package will cost $17,500 plus expenses, which will include advertising and travel expenses. Prothman will also conduct another search without charge if the hired candidate is fired with cause or resigns during the first two years on the job.
The City Council began working with Prothman on the recruitment process at its June 15 meeting by reviewing a brochure detailing the position. Prothman is now advertising the position, and he will do the first application review July 19.
He will report back to the council with an update on the process at the July 20 meeting, hold a workshop for candidates July 21 and conduct semifinalist interviews from July 22 to Aug. 2.
He will hold the second workshop Aug. 3, and coordinate final interviews and perform background checks from Aug. 4-13. Final interviews are slated to be Aug. 15 and 16, but they may get rescheduled to Sept. 9 and 10 if the process takes longer than expected.
Deputy Mayor Steve Buri and councilwomen Lisa Jensen and Carol Simpson spoke in favor of the using the recruiter.
“Not only does Mr. Prothman have the best proposal, but he also has a great track record,” Buri said at the June 1 meeting before the council voted.
However, Crispo and Councilman Bill Erxleben expressed concerns with hiring a recruiter to find the next city manager.
Crispo described hiring a city manager as a crapshoot, and he said using a recruiter, which the city did when hiring the past three city managers, has been unsuccessful. He said the next city manager doesn’t necessarily need to be somebody with city manager experience, but rather somebody with good management skills.
He added that he is opposed to offering severance pay to the next city manager, as most other jobs don’t offer severance pay to employees who get fired. However, Prothman said severance pay has become an industry standard for city managers, as city councils change members and direction, often resulting in city managers being fired.
In an interview after the meeting, Crispo said he still disagreed with giving severance pay, as there is no reason to fire the city manager if he or she is responding to the needs of the city’s residents.
He said he voted against entering into the contract with Prothman because the screening process may not produce the best candidates, and because it may not be the best use of the city’s money.
“I just thought it was money we didn’t need to spend,” Crispo said.
Before voting to enter into the agreement with Prothman June 1, Erxleben said it would be useful for the community to go through a search process to gain confidence the city is getting the best possible person for the job. He agreed with Crispo and called the process of using the recruiter a crapshoot.
However, he voted in favor of using the recruiter, and in an interview after the meeting he said he did so because he wanted to be supportive of the process. He said a split in the council in choosing to use a recruiter might diminish the candidate pool.
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