Salary range set for manager hunt

She said the city manager was the chief of city hall so he or she should make more than other administrators.

“It’s the top job for the city so it needs to start higher,” she said.

Councilor Dan Spatz suggested the figures be set lower so the city would have room to provide wage increases if the individual stayed for a number of years.

“It makes it hard to increase over a period of years if we start that high,” he said.

Nolan Young, the city manager who was terminated Sept. 14 by the council, was making $133,226 plus benefits at the time of his departure. He had been in the position for 18 years and received his last raise in July 2014.

Councilor Taner Eliot suggested that the city start at $105,000 per year to “keep the door open for discussion” with final manager candidates.

The city has hired Slavin Management Consultants, a firm based in Georgia, to conduct a nationwide search at a cost of $21,253 that will exclude travel expenses.

Gene Parker, city attorney, was asked to negotiate the price down as far as he could. The council told Parker to let Slavin know that staff would do some of the groundwork associated with the search to keep expenditures down. “I think the price we’ve got is probably the best we’re going to get,” said Parker.

Slavin had originally wanted $22,173 to winnow down the field of candidates to a handful of finalists. However, the city was given a small deduction for having Parker, Krueger and Izetta Grossman, administrative assistant, develop a profile of the town and a position description for the manager’s role that will make Slavin’s job a little easier.

Although the city charter says a new manager must be brought onboard within six months, Parker said at an Oct. 7 special meeting that the process could probably be extended if necessary by appointing an interim manager for a specific period of time. Slavin was chosen out of three companies applying to lead the search and gave a timeline of six months or less to have a handful of final candidates chosen.

Mayor Steve Lawrence said earlier this month that the advantage of going with a search group instead of city officials trying to do their own recruiting was that objective specialists would be vetting candidates. He said Slavin would also perform extensive background checks to weed out people who were not qualified for the post.

The city plans to convene a seven-member subcommittee to interview the semi-finalists and finalists.

That idea was proposed by Councilor Tim McGlothlin and agreed upon by the remainder of the council, who will have two members on the work group, along with representatives from the port, county and business base.