West Lebanon
A manager also should be able to bridge any divisions between the two sides of the city and work proactively to solve problems, residents told Alan Gould, president of Municipal Resources Inc., a Meredith, N.H.-based consulting firm conducting the search for candidates.
“I think there are societal pressures in Lebanon,” Melissa Billings, a Wellington Circle resident, before an audience of nearly 10 people in the former Seminary Hill School.
With Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Dartmouth College next door and two merging interstates nearby, the city has a lot to offer, Billings said.
The region also has a lot of natural beauty, she said, but somehow Lebanon sometimes feels like one big shopping center.
“We’ve been promised again and again that industry and growth and commercial development will lower our taxes. That has not been the case,” Billings said.
She is an opponent of a proposed development at Carter Country Club, which would build 283 single-family homes off of Slayton Hill Road and Buckingham Place.
Another attendee, Joe Asch, who owns a fitness club in Centerra Plaza, said he wants “a manager who manages,” particularly the city’s Planning Department.
Zoning and building codes are clear cut, but Asch contended that businesses often have trouble working in Lebanon. Asch himself clashed recently with the city’s land use boards over whether he was required to install fire sprinklers while adding a childcare center to his facility.
“Citizens have a right that the laws be clearly enforced,” he said.
Asch added the city has lost out on opportunities to other communities because of how it treats developers.
Gould, the consultant, spent Tuesday touring Lebanon, and said the city already has two key elements that thriving communities require: a healthy mix of commercial development and housing that caters to different income levels.
“What I’m getting from the amount of research I’ve done here is that you really want a manager who will help you achieve a balance,” Gould told the group.
Tension between development and communities is common among towns in the region, he said, adding what’s important is how that tension is managed.
The biggest challenge he sees facing the city of roughly 13,500 is how it provides services not just to residents but also commuters. As people travel into Lebanon for work, dinner or shopping, the city services can be strained.
“It’s like you need to be staffed up for all these extra people coming in, but you really can’t afford to do that,” he said.
Others in attendance said a future city manager needs to bride the divide, real or perceived, between West Lebanon and Lebanon.
“I’m struck by how deeply it is felt,” said Billings, who considers her home between the two centers. “People in West Lebanon feel that they get the short end of the stick.”
In downtown Lebanon, city staff work to install Christmas lights, she said, while there are no decorations in West Lebanon. Billings also wondered why downtown Lebanon was the subject of a recent visioning study when West Lebanon appears to be in more need.
Conversely, West Lebanon resident Amy Motta said she doesn’t see that divide. Instead, she sees Lebanon as more of a quintessential city center, while West Lebanon serves as its shopping district.
“I don’t really see that West Lebanon has an identity,” she said.
Gould said he plans to use comments from Tuesday’s meeting and another next week as his firm begins searching for a new city manager.
The top job in Lebanon has been empty since Dennis Luttrell was fired by the City Council in March 2016, after just a handful of months on the job. Longtime city employee Paula Maville has served since in the top role on an interim basis.
The search process, which formally began in January, is meant to address shortcomings some saw in the 2015 hiring of Luttrell, Mayor Sue Prentiss said during an interview last week.
No public input was sought when Luttrell was hired from a group of candidates chosen by the Atlanta-based Mercer Group. The city’s department heads also had no input in the hiring.
Prentiss said that won’t be the case this time around.
Gould’s firm was chosen because it has a successful track record working within communities to hire top leaders, she said.
The firm recently worked on similar searches in the Upper Valley communities of Hartford, Claremont and Enfield.
Consultants have set up a meeting with the city’s department heads, and there also are plans to speak with city staff and union representatives in one-on-one meetings with Gould, Prentiss said. The city’s boards and committees also will have a chance to weigh in, she said
Gould’s firm, which is being paid $17,000 for the search, then is expected to look through resumes, perform background checks and narrow the search down to 15 candidates. Lebanon is paying an additional $1,200 to advertise for the position.
“At the end of this, we want to have someone on board by the first of the year,” Prentiss said.
A second forum is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on July 26 in the City Hall Council Chambers.
People who are not able to attend either forum can provide their comments to the consultants by sending an email to lebcitymanagerrecruitment@mrigov.com.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.