Council considering outside help in search for new city manager

The Waynesboro City Council is considering tapping an outside agency to lead the search for a new city manager, with a hiring to follow within three to six months, council members said Monday.
“I don’t know if it will take three months or six months, but I can’t imagine it taking longer than six months,” Councilman Tim Williams said.
Officials expect the city to cast its net across the state, posting the opening on the Internet and advertising in government publications such as Virginia Municipal magazine. A search firm was used in 2002, leading to the hiring of Doug Walker in January 2003.
“We discussed that last week and talked about using an agency, a service, to find out how many applicants may be out there [and] how many parties may be interested,” Williams said. “Last time, they asked council members about the qualities and philosophies they were looking for in a city manager, then council was given a pool of names.”
More than 100 people applied for the job in 2002, officials said. The list was winnowed to five or six candidates before the council began conducting interviews.
The search firm “interviewed each council member and got a feeling for what each council member was looking for and information on the city as a whole,” Vice Mayor Nancy Dowdy said. “They also interviewed citizens in the community and put together the criteria. They took all of our criteria and meshed it together. I hope we use this same process. It takes all the members’ and citizens’ input and meshes it together.”
Mayor Tom Reynolds said Williams’ six-month goal might be optimistic.
“This is not something that will happen overnight,” Reynolds said. “It takes some time, but if you do it right, you find the right person for the job.”
Walker last month announced his resignation, effective June 30. The council’s conservative bloc, currently made up of Williams and Frank Lucente, told Walker shortly after the May 6 election that he could resign or be fired once Bruce Allen joins the panel July 1. Allen is an ally of Williams and Lucente.
Using a search firm should help achieve neutrality in the hiring of a new city manager, Dowdy said.
“We all need to have input,” Dowdy said. “I’m not focused on the majority and the minority. I think everybody’s opinion is valuable.”
Said Williams: “I, basically, want a city manager to give me the facts, not his opinions or lobbying for a particular cause or position.”