City Manager Applicant Workshop Action Plan

The Polk City Council Workshop on Monday 3/7/11 to discuss the applicants for the City Manager job opening was rather informal compared to the usual format in other workshops.  The council members, Mark Durbin of the Range Riders, Interim City Attorney, Tom Cloud, and City Clerk, Patricia Jackson, all sat round table at the head of the room.  The audience was encouraged to move closer to the front so they could hear, since the microphone system was not being used.  One by one top picks of the submitted resumes were discussed, pros and cons, by each individual at the table. 

By the end of the evening, the list was narrowed down to 12 applicants whom Patricia Jackson would be contacting by phone to get additional information, if it was not included in their cover letter or resume.  Before narrowing the applicant pool too far, they wanted to find out if they were still interested and are still available for the job, the rock bottom salary and benefits range they would be willing to accept, and if they would be willing to pay for their own expenses if they were invited to interview from out of state.  Mr. Durbin stated that it is customary for the prospective employer to cover travel expenses for a top candidate to interview from out of state, but council members wanted to see if that would be additional expenses which could be avoided.  Mr. Durbin also recommended that preliminary queries done on these candidates online, through contacts, public records, and the like, might be a good idea to do prior to scheduling interviews to narrow down the field even further.  Much of these searches can be done at little to no cost and might provide valuable information into why the applicant is currently looking for employment and if they would be a good fit for what the city's needs are.  The plan by the end of Monday night's workshop was to have the results of the this work available for discussion by council for the Monday, March 14th regular City Council Meeting at 7:00 PM.

Here is a link to Mr. Kevin Bouffard's article in the Ledger about last night's workshop:  Polk City Narrows List of Manager Candidates to 11

Another article will be posted here on the blog breaking down some of the information on each applicant the council is considering.  It will take a little while to digest all the notes taken during the meeting.