The East Ridge Commission has trimmed its city manager search from 51 applicants to six finalists who will be interviewed face to face.
The qualifications for the position are specified in the city charter. The first is that the candidate has three years of supervisory experience in a government position. The person must have a bachelor’s degree, and any other criteria that the council may determine.
Each commissioner made a list of the people they were interested in based on qualifications, and specifics of the resumes and applications. The six people that had multiple votes made the list of finalists. Mayor Brent Lambert noted that a city manager’s job is a volatile position and anyone with experience has probably been fired, which may be only because the council members changed and wanted to choose their own manager.
Those on the short list include John Miller who now lives in North Carolina. He left his last job and discovered that retirement was not for him, said Councilman Jacky Cagle. Mayor Lambert said he appears to be “a rare find” because he stayed in several jobs for seven to 10 years, and after leaving one was brought back years later. This shows a bit of longevity, he said, because he apparently got along with people.
James Ayres, who currently lives in Ashville, N.C., has a good skill set, said the mayor. He is educated in economic development and has experience in public works management as well as private sector experience.
William Watson, now living in Rhea County, is already familiar with the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) provided by the University of Tennessee to serve city governments. He also has experience with the Tennessee Municipal League (TML) whose function is to work with the state’s general assembly on behalf of city government to promote helpful legislation.
Mark Kutney from Wellington, Fla., has had both city manager and deputy city manager experience as well as having held other positions in municipal government. Additionally, he has some planning background which the city is interested in. He now works for a tiny city with just 3,000 residents, but was deputy city manager in a city of 18,000, close to the population of East Ridge and has worked for Davey, Fla., with a population of 100,000.
Robert Rokovitz has tentatively accepted another job but was still willing to be considered for the East Ridge position, said the mayor. He now lives in Alpharetta, Ga.
Amanda Miller, who currently holds the position of community involvement coordinator in East Ridge, is the sixth applicant that appeared on two lists. Councilman Cagle said the council already knows her background and ability, having worked for the city fulltime for 10 years. He also said he had confidence that she could do the budget and is familiar with the Border Region Act of Tennessee. He and Councilman Denny Manning would like to give her the opportunity for an interview.
Mr. Manning also nominated Chris Dorsey for the position. During the last city manager search in East Ridge he was offered the job with a salary of $120,000. He took a job with Signal Mountain for $90,000. “It’s hard not to be insulted by that,” said Mayor Lambert. “That’s more than I can overcome, personally.” “Everybody makes mistakes,” said Councilman Manning.
Two of the six men on the list have not yet responded to calls from the East Ridge officials to make sure there is still interest in the job. If no response is received, the interviews will be narrowed to the four that are interested.
The next step will be to notify the six that they are finalists. Mayor Lambert urged holding interviews soon because several candidates have already accepted other jobs. The council decided to schedule interviews over two days, Friday night, April 29, and Saturday night, April 30. They will begin at 5:30 p.m. and go until the process is finished.
A budget will be determined for travel expenses before the interviews are scheduled.
Mayor Lambert told the council members to begin determining the questions that they want to ask. He said it will be important that the same questions are asked to everyone.