City manager search moving ahead
First round of interviews set for March 21
By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Friday, March 7, 2008 12:27 PM PST
Ontario — Ontario should have a new city manager by summer.
The first round of interviews is planned for March 21, with three applications submitted so far, according to Prothman Associates, the firm in charge of the search.
“It’s not a lot,” Ontario Mayor Joe Dominick said. “But at least we have three in.”
While Prothman is in charge of the candidates search, owner Greg Prothman said he attempts to involve council members throughout the process.
“We read all the resumes then join the council and go through them,” he said. “We then get down to the top 10, 11 or 12 and do semi-final interviews.”
He said he expects 30 to 40 applicants for the Ontario top slot by the time the quest concludes, based on other similar-sized city searches. Dominick said he was originally concerned about the amount of communication between Prothman and the council. However, the communication breakdown was because of an e-mail malfunction, Dominick said. After continued attempts to get in touch through e-mail, Dominick decided it would be a better idea to go more low-tech.
“I didn’t know that the e-mail wasn’t working,” Dominick said. “I had a good conversation with them and things are on track. We’re going to be doing weekly phone updates now so I can keep updating the council.” Ontario City Councilman John Gaskill adopted a wait-and-see attitude towards the search.
“They presented a timeline about how long it would take,” he said. “If we’re interested in knowing something, they would tell us. They gave us a timeline, so we’ll see how that works.”
The search timeline is slated to take four months from when Prothman first received its information regarding the town. However, the company’s Web site states the search will continue until the position is filled. The City Council contacted the consulting firm three weeks ago, with advertising for the position beginning two and a half weeks ago.
The Bellevue, Wash.,-based firm posted information about the position on its Web site and mailed letters alerting other city managers, administrators, professional journals, and Web sites about the opening. Dominick said that the company would continue to mail more letters alerting people to the position.
“They told me 800 letters will go out,” he said. “They wanted to make sure they got the direct mail pieces out by the weekend.”
Prothman said that his company talked with council members and residents to get a better idea of what the city was looking for in a city manager.
“We talked to pretty much anyone we could get our hands on,” he said.
Dominick said he has an idea of the qualities he would like to see in a city manager.
“I want a strong leader,” he said. “Someone who is willing to say ‘no’ at any time. Someone who can make their own decisions and decisions for the rest of the community. Not someone who has to be everybody’s buddy.”
Jack wrote on Mar 15, 2008 8:41 AM: