Claremont
Some on the committee, which was appointed by the council, had said at an Oct. 4 meeting that they needed more input from the community to develop the proper profile for the next manager to ensure they choose the best candidate. Others said that work has been completed by the search firm hired by the city and now it is their role to sort through the resumes.
The list of candidates has been narrowed to 12 and the search committee will begin reviewing the resumes and other material of each candidate next week, Municipal Resources Inc. President Alan Gould told the committee. The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday.
Gould said he expects to have on-site interviews with six finalists in mid-November. The committee is charged with choosing those six finalists.
Gould began with 37 resumes from 18 states; from there, that number was pared to 16. Gould told the committee two candidates withdrew and two were eliminated for failing to respond to the essay request. He planned to finish the phone interviews on Friday, at which time he would forward all of the personnel information to the 13-member committee electronically. He cautioned the committee on the importance that all the names remain confidential, as most are currently employed.
The committee also briefly revisited an issue that surfaced at the Oct. 4 meeting when several members said “rumors are rampant” that the council already has made a choice. One unnamed councilor is alleged to have made that statement and questioned the need for a committee, committee member Bethany Yurek said.
At Thursday’s meeting, Yurek said she would not name the councilor and would let them come forward if he or she wanted to.
In response to Yurek, committee member Don Limoges said the discussion with Mayor Charlene Lovett at the committee’s first meeting — when the mayor said no decision had been made and demanded to know which councilor made the statement — appears to have been a waste of time.
“We will know if it was a waste of time if we hire someone a mile down the road,” Yurek countered.
The City Council’s goal is to have a new manager by the end of the year, when Guy Santagate retires after 15 years.
Clarification
The search committee for a new city manager in Claremont last week voted not to hold a public forum to get feedback, but did vote to allow brief public comments at the start of its regular meetings. A headline with an earlier version of this story was unclear on that point.
