By GLYNIS HART
[email protected]
CLAREMONT – As the city council decides how to go about searching for a new city manager, how much money to pay for that search is a question. The council is looking at proposals from companies that conduct such searches, which cost between $14,000 and $30,000.
At an emergency meeting held Thursday night the council discussed their next steps.
“Ultimately, my decision would be based on what it’s going to cost the city,” said Councilor Nick Koloski, who voted against the resolution that ended the employment of the previous city manager. The council had planned to discuss the four proposals already received.
Assistant Mayor Allen Damren, however, began the meeting with a presentation of how the City of Lebanon conducted a city manager search. Using a governance committee and the consulting firm MRI (Municipal Resources, Inc.) the City of Lebanon conducted a “hybrid approach” in which the city did some of the work and MRI did other parts — notably marketing and outreach.
“MRI is doing pick and shovel work,” Damren said. The city, for its part, conducted final interviews later in the process.
“What’s the cost for this?” asked Councilor Jeremy Zullo.
Damren said about $9,500.
Acting City Manager John MacLean amended that, saying Lebanon’s cost was around $14,000. “I can assist them in Claremont,” he said. “They can do it here for less.”
Damren added that Claremont had developed a profile for a successful city manager candidate only two years ago, and much of that material will still be appropriate. He encouraged the council to look at doing a lot of the search work themselves and contracting with MRI or a similar company to keep the price down.
Councilor Abigail Kier asked why the meeting was called to discuss four proposals “and now we have a fifth proposal we didn’t get from our RFP.”
Damren said to use the hybrid approach they don’t have to rely on MRI. “We can scratch MRI and put any other company in there.”
The council turned to consider the four proposals they do have. The consulting firms have capabilities the city doesn’t; Claremont city administration has one person to handle human resources.
Three proposals were rapidly removed from consideration: a New Hampshire firm with much experience in health care, but none in city manager searches; an Indiana firm with no experience in New Hampshire or New Eng-land, and a company in Illinois that failed to follow the instructions for what the city wanted in the proposal. At this stage of the search, fees are not being considered, but that company included its fee anyway.
The fourth company specializes in municipal employment and has done 51 city manager searches. Without knowing how much this one would cost Kier dubbed this one “the fancy one.”
“I really like fancy things, but sometimes when I see the price, I don’t anymore,” Koloski said.
MacLean said, “I know everyone’s really concerned about the cost. I’ll ask you to remember, you can’t afford to make a mistake, either. A mistake could be costly, and think about what it’s worth to this community to have a well-qualified person in this role.”
The council’s termination of city manager Ryan McNutt cost the city his severance pay as well as money to hire acting city manager John MacLean, who only works two or three days a week in Claremont. “That’s six figures it cost the taxpayer,” said Koloski. “We’d be out six figures again if (this process doesn’t work).”
Councilor Scott Pope said two years ago when the city conducted a similar search, “the quotes were from $14,000 to $27,000.”
“That’s a good range,” said MacLean.
Councilor Claire Lessard said she’d gotten a call from a constituent who wants to know why the city can’t look for a business professional in Claremont.
“I think we should ask if that business person would step forward with a proposal,” said Pope. “I’d certainly want to examine it.”
“We’ve got to change our way of doing things,” said Lessard.
Councilor Andrew O’Hearne agreed with the idea of opening up the process. “I think we need to start local.”
“If we went with a firm, it wouldn’t preclude anybody local from applying,” said Kier. Because of some of the accusations and rumors about city council during the last year, however, she said “it’s important to put some distance between us and this process.
“We can only keep Mr. MacLean so long,” she added. “We need to figure out what we’re doing and start doing it.”
“I disagree,” said Zullo. “It’s our one employee; this council of nine has one employee.” Zullo suggested asking the New Hampshire Municipal Association if they have a basic package to help with a city manager search. (NHMA has assisted the school district with a consultant to help in its search for a new superintendent, at a base cost of $12,000.)
O’Hearne wondered about the efficacy of doing a national search when the last three city managers came from New England anyway.
Mayor Charlene Lovett asked for a vote on how many wanted to go with a firm. All voted yes except O’Hearne and John Stone.
The majority agreed that a consulting firm has marketing expertise and the capacity to do background checks, behavioral interviewing and other tools to find good candidates.
Lovett said, “What I think I’m hearing is you [the council] would like to compare apples to apples.”
Lovett suggested asking the companies what each of them would charge for the hybrid approach Damren was touting. She put a timeline on the process; the companies that submitted proposals all said the process takes 90 days.
“Your best interest is served by getting someone on board as soon as possible,” said MacLean. “If you started tomorrow, 90 days would take you to the end of June.”
The council adjourned the meeting to continue at a later date: March 27 at 6 p.m.
139 Main update
Jeremy Zullo asked for an update on the condemned building at 139 Main Street, where the Jersey barriers blocking one lane of traffic have been moved back to the road side.
MacLean said the barriers had been moved to accommodate two-way traffic. “We’ve been working with the owner of the adjacent building,” he said. “It’s complicated because the city doesn’t own the building. We have an order to allow us to demolish it, and we had a bid, but the bid didn’t include the work to shore up the wall of the adjacent building.”
The city’s engineers have warned that if 139 Main collapses, it may take the wall of the adjacent building down with it. They were especially concerned that an extra load of snow could cause a collapse.
“We also need a release from the adjacent property owner,” said MacLean. “We hope to ask for bids pretty soon.”
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