Council opts to continue city admin search – Two more candidates will be brought into the process
Published 10:22 am Friday, September 26, 2014
The Austin City Council didn’t pick a city administrator candidate, but they did eliminate a finalist.
Morris
The council voted Thursday to bring in two more city admin candidates who couldn’t make the previous interviews on Sept. 19 and 20. They also voted to eliminate Pat Oman from contention. Oman is the city administrator for Moose Lake, Minnesota.
Mayor Tom Stiehm proposed bringing in more candidates at the beginning of the meeting as council members previously made it clear there was no clear pick for the position.
“It seems the council is all over the table,” he said. “Nobody has really jumped out yet.”
The two extra candidates withdrew their applications as they couldn’t make the city’s two-day interview period last week, according to consultant Pat McGarvey. McGarvey said one of those candidates would have been in the finalist pool.
Wilke
Yet council members were torn about the decision to wait and interview more candidates.
“They might just say, ‘You guys can’t figure out what you want down there, we don’t want to come to that type of environment,’” Council Member Michael Jordal said.
Yet Council Members Steve King and Jeff Austin agreed with Stiehm that choosing the best possible candidate would ensure a better working relationship between the new city administrator and the rest of the city.
“We’re not in a crisis mode here,” King said.
Oman
The council ultimately voted 5-2, with Jordal and Council Member Judy Enright dissenting, to interview the two other candidates. They also voted 4-3 to eliminate two candidates council members knew they wouldn’t choose, but amended the vote after the council ranked the four candidates. Austin, King and Council Member Jeremy Carolan dissented, and Austin refused to vote to eliminate a candidate.
In the end, Kandis Hanson, Andrew Morris and Steve Wilke tied under the council’s rankings. Morris has been city manager for Moberly, Missouri, since 2007. Wilke has been the city manager of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, since 2000. Hanson is the city manager in Mound, Minnesota. She took that job in 2000.
Hanson
If the two candidates accept the interview offer, the council hopes to interview them on Oct. 3 and 4, where they will go through a similar process as the first four finalists.
Jordal said after the meeting he’s still worried the council will lose the other candidates because of the wait.
“I don’t think this is the best move for Austin,” he said. “We have three good candidates right now.”
