By Pauline Masson –
Alderman Rick Presley says the rush to advertise the city administrator search was yanked out of committee prematurely and leaves too many unanswered questions on what the City wants in a new city manager.
After Steve Roth resigned in July 2023, former city administrator Harold Selby offered to return to the post temporarily while the city searches for Roth’s replacement. Selby was given a one-year contract, with the possibility of two years while the board of aldermen (BOA) worked out the details of the search and hiring process. The issue was sent to the administrative committee, which is chaired by James Cleeve.
At the Jan. 2 BOA meeting Scott Lesh called for the job description and post advertising the vacancy to be removed from committee and brought to the Jan. 16 BOA meeting for approval.
Tuesday evening, Cleeve presented the documents with a list of recommended changes that still needed to be approved, leading Presley to ask whether the two documents had come out of committee prematurely.
Presley said he wanted to know, under the committee’s plan, who would review applications and determine if if the applicants were qualified.
“ I was hoping to hear from committee how that would be handled,” Presley said. “If we present this and it is incomplete would we even get applications? I don’t think we should rush thru this. The citizens deserve good representation of what we expect.”
Cleeve said the committee had not decided on what qualification the city should require of candidates.
“Should we say a bachelor’s degree in a related field and five years experience as a city administrator, or should we say no bachelor’s degree if candidate has 25 years experience as an administrator?” he said.
Selby said some things to be considered were whether the city administrator should have to live in City. And, if so, would the City pay moving expenses.
“You’re going to get candidates with a bachelor’s degree, probably in administration. They will be assistant administrators or they’ll be moving to a bigger city,” Selby said. “What you need to determine is whether you will require them to live in Pacific and whether the City will pay relocation costs.”
“Who ever you get they might come from some distance and have to buy a home. They might need a four or five year contract so next election doesn’t change their position,” Selby said. “If you want a good person they will want stability – not just a year of two – they’ll have to prove themselves.”
Rafael Madrigal said taking the issue out of committee seemed premature.
“It seems like we were rushed at the last meeting,” Madrigal said. “The process was taken away from our community.”
Mayor Heather Filley said she believed the job description and language for advertising the position could move forward with the approved changes. But, items that need to be in the advertising for the job. including salary and whether the applicant would have to live in the City and a the length of contract, can be addressed in committee.
City Clerk Kim Barfield said based on past searches potential applicants who called her for details were more concerned with moving expenses than salary.
Cleeve agreed that the City would need to decide on moving expenses before publicizing the job opening.
Presley said advertising for applicants and beginning to interview candidates should not take place until after the April election.
“I just think we shouldn’t do a lot until after our April election,” he said. “Potentially new aldermen will be up here and they will have to work with someone for a five year term. We should do future aldermen a service that they would be able to interview the applicants. I just feel like we’re getting ahead of the game.”
Cleeve said he was opposed to waiting until after the election to move forward with the search.
“Mr. Selby started August 15 and he agreed that he would go beyond year so I’m not worried that we won’t be covered,” Cleeve said.
Alderman Scott Lesh said there is no reason that the BOA could not act more quickly. He said committees are not meeting enough.
“Since August the only thing we’ve got is a draft of this ordinance,” Lesh said. ”There is a difference between rushing and moving something along. This needs to be moved along. The committee doesn’t meet often enough. Things turn into two, three, four, five months.”
Presley said the issue needed more clarification before anything is approved.
“Let’s get this back into committee,” Presley said.”What Scott Lesh always asks us to do is to be transparent. Let’s make this so the citizens know what to expect.”
Cleeve made a motion to approve the recommended changes to both the job description and advertising post, return both to the administrative committee but not advertise the vacancy yet until details are finalized.
In a two-two vote aldermen tied on the issue with Cleeve and Lesh voted yes and Madrigal and Presley voted no. Aldermen Debbie Kelley and Anna Meadows were not present.
Mayor Filley broke the tie, voting to the approve recommended changes, send the issue back to committee but postpone advertising the vanancy.
The Administrative Committee will meet 4:00 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24 at city hall. The meetings are open and the public is allowed to speak.
I am unable to tell if this degree is in business administration or public administration. My recommendation would be in business administration or five years equivalent experience successfully running a business, plus public service. I’ve got enough school paper to paper a bathroom, and I would rather see someone in there who has run a business day to day dealing with the public, not just in government service. That might include school boards or something like the Partnership or a chamber.
Remember the number of modern billionaire executives who are college dropouts and extremely savvy people but don’t have a BA degree. Common sense may have meant backgrounds far from ivory tower academe.