When the Watonga City Council met in an unusual Wednesday evening special meeting, there was a short agenda. It included the appointment of a new library director, but no action was taken on that item, with the council instead instructing Justin Woldridge, the acting city manager, to meet with the library board of directors and make a decision without council interference.
Council then filled two seats on the board of adjustments, which makes variance recommendations to the planning and zoning committee. Marcus Wray and this reporter were seated. The adjustment meetings are open to the public.
The city council also approved the sinking fund estimate of needs for the 2012 general obligation hospital bonds and then turned to a significant item – advertising for a new city manager for the city.
Leading that discussion was Steve Whitlock, executive director of Oklahoma Municipal Management Services. The council had agreed at its last meeting to hire OMMS for the search. This session was to hammer out a search process and create an outline job description.
Whitlock presented a draft description/advertisement. It gave parameters as residency requirements, experience of at least five years experience in public administration, with three of those years as a department head or division manager. It also offers the option of an equivalent combination of education and experience.
The original suggestion of the council was to include a pay range of $80,000-85,000, but that was changed to ‘commensurate with experience and qualifications’. Council member Neal Riley said he hoped to pay less while Whitlock warned the council they might not be able to find anyone in that price range because the pool of acceptable applicants is narrow. He told the council members his firm is even beginning to recruit transitioning members of the military who have similar experience because of the dearth of applicants.
“The job market for city managers is horrible right now,” he said. “There are not many applicants and salaries are up.”
The process OMMS uses starts with a prospective employee sending his/her application to that entity, not to the city or hand delivering to a council member. Doing so is frowned upon since it indicates the applicant doesn’t want to follow the process from the get-go.
The job will be posted on two job boards run by OMMS as well as a national and an international job board that cater to city administration job seekers.
Council members have access to an applicant portal, where they can see applications.
OMMS issues scores to the applications and council members can see the score sheets.
Top tier applicants are asked to sign a records release allowing OMMS to do a full background check. Whitlock said those checks include social media, criminal background and credit checks as well as court records.
City resident Wray asked if the city had considered or would consider a part-time manager, since that is allowed by statute.
Whitlock said it was a possibility and in the past it was a popular option. Now, he said, it is coming back as a choice. He also explained why the job description included the supervision and control of all departments.
If a city manager is to be accountable to a council and city residents, he said, the department heads should be accountable as well, working up the city hierarchy.