Mayor urged openness during meeting to select interim city manager
Selection process turned out to be straightforward
Friday, November 16, 2007 10:41 AM PST
William Lundquist
Argus Observer
Ontario — While selecting Ontario Police Chief Mike Kee to be the interim city manager after Scott Trainor departs at the end of the month, Ontario Mayor Joe Dominick made good on his campaign promises of a new openness in city dealings, though he and the other council members talked about Kee for an hour at a special meeting Nov. 8 before coming out and actually using his name. Throughout the City Council’s special meeting Nov. 8, Dominick pressed to have much of the elected board’s business conducted as openly as possible, even after Trainor advised him that some candidates, especially for the permanent position, would probably withdraw their names if they knew they were to be made public before they had a good chance of actually being hired.
Legally, City Attorney Larry Sullivan advised the council, interim or permanent, the city would have to advertise the position and meet other criteria before it could discuss names in executive session. He told the council they could always discuss anything in open session.
Dominick opened the Nov. 8 meeting by saying the council was there to discuss process only, not to name any names yet. Trainor said his scheduled departure at the end of the month, however, made time of the essence.
“I feel a sense of urgency to get someone on board as soon as possible,” he said.
Only one interim candidate from within the city (who turned out to be Kee) had the necessary knowledge and the necessary backup within his department to enable him to do the job, Trainor said. He also knew of one candidate from outside city government who could handle the steep learning curve.
The name of that person was never revealed.
Ontario City Councilwoman Susann Mills initially opposed hiring the interim manager from within the city. She said city departments were short-staffed as it was. Mills finally voted with the others, however, who felt the appointment of someone within the city was the only way to avoid delay and put that person in the job before Trainor left.
Dominick not only polled each council member about their feelings, but also the citizens at the meeting and city department heads Rachel Hopper, Tori Barnett and Ed Aronson. All agreed a city person could and should be appointed.
As it became more obvious that many people had the same person in mind, Trainor finally confessed he had approached Kee already, and that the police chief said he would accept the job, though he said he would be just as happy if someone else was chosen. He said Kee did not mind if his name was revealed in a public meeting.
When City Councilman Lewie Allen said he was just going to name the name, Dominick took over and said he would do it. Dominick then left to bring Kee into the meeting and announced the news to him.
“Yeah, that’d be fine,” Kee said, and a round of applause came from the audience. With the interim manager chosen, the council members still had to decide on a method of searching for a permanent manager. Trainor told them using the League of Oregon Cities for the search would cost $6,000 to $7,000, plus reimbursables.
They would do the basic profile, advertise, recruit candidates and then turn the process back to the council. Trainor said the league does a decent job, but when La Grande used them, they ended up also using an executive recruitment firm. The Dalles, he said, had trouble attracting candidates, which may have had nothing to do with the league.
For about $24,000, he said, an executive recruitment firm would handle everything from beginning to end and narrow it down to three or four candidates for the council to choose from. He added it is much harder to find qualified candidates now than it was a few years ago. City Councilman John Gaskill said he was on the council that handled the search six years ago in-house and finally hired Trainor from a choice of two excellent candidates. He said they started with about 30 qualified candidates.
“We did it ourselves before and we won on that one,” he said, “But Scott knows the dynamics of his business better than I do.”
Gaskill said he could go either way, and the other council members all preferred paying the money to have an executive recruitment firm handle everything.
“We want as objective and professional a process as possible,” City Councilman Jim Mosier said. He said the cost of hiring a firm was an investment in the community. Ultimately, the council members voted unanimously to have Trainor and the Human Resources director develop a list of executive recruitment firms and a “request for qualifications” form.
