Article published Sep 1, 2007

Commission to hire city manager in December

By RICHARD ECKE

Tribune Staff Writer

City commissioners won't replace City Manager John Lawton until December at the earliest.

It's unclear whether Lawton would stay on if the decision is put off until January or later.

"All I ever said was I wanted to be done by the end of the year," Lawton said Wednesday. He declined to discuss what he would do if the naming of a replacement is delayed, saying he has not talked to the commissioners on that subject yet.

Lawton earlier said he wanted to stay out of the selection process.

City commissioners agreed to hire a consulting firm, Waters-Oldani, to help the city choose a new city manager. The company will be paid $29,000 for its head-hunting efforts, under a contract approved by the commission Aug. 7.

According to a timetable offered by the consultants, Waters-Oldani will conduct its first review of resumes Oct. 12; will go over a list of semifinal candidates with the mayor and City Commission on Oct. 22; semifinalists will all be interviewed by Nov. 19; finalists will be recommended to city officials Nov. 19; the city will receive candidate profiles Dec. 3; final interviews will take place Dec. 6-7, and an offer would be extended to a finalist the week of Dec. 10.

Consultant Jerry Oldani interviewed nearly three dozen people in Great Falls from Aug. 16-17, including city commissioners, business people, staff members and others.

Here are some of the qualities those people said they would like to see in a new city manager: collaborative, problem solver, high ethics and integrity, responsive and engaged, fair and consistent, a professional, visible and involved in the community, candid and forthright, open with information, a strong and proactive communicator, decisive, dynamic, thick-skinned, not too egotistical, appropriately modest, values the city's leadership team and employees, committed to customer service, and a politically astute person who will remain apolitical.

Among potential issues facing a new manager, the consultants pointed out, are the proposed new coal-fired Highwood Generating Station, a $720 million project the city wants to own a share of, a succession plan for senior management, working together with county government, improving relations with a variety of community agencies and groups, improving public safety, and involving the community in strategic planning.

Based upon priorities set by the City Commission and others, the new manager should "continue to address and promote the construction of the Highwood (Generating Station)," the consultants said.

That recommendation drew a complaint this week from Richard Liebert, president of Citizens for Clean Energy, a Great Falls group opposed to the coal plant. Liebert questioned whether it's appropriate to require the new manager to be an "HGS promoter."

The consultants also suggested the city should consider a base salary for the new manager of $115,000 to $125,000 or more. That would be a significant salary increase for the new manager. Lawton makes $91,787 per year.

According to the consultants' schedule, the new manager would be picked after the Nov. 6 city election, in which the mayor and two commissioners are selected. At least one of the commissioners will be new.

After a city agenda-setting meeting, Commissioner John Rosenbaum said the commission's plan was to have any new commissioners sit in on post-election meetings dealing with the manager's selection. But, Rosenbaum added, new commissioners would not have a vote.

City officials will be sworn in in January. If the new manager is not selected by then, any lame-duck commissioners also would be invited to sit in on meetings dealing with the manager's selection, but they would no longer have a vote on who gets the job, according to tentative plans laid out by city commissioners.

Liebert and other plant critics would like the commission to wait until January or later to pick the new manager.

BOX:

Opponents of the coal-fired Highwood Generating Station would like to take over a majority of the Great Falls City Commission in the Nov. 6 general election.

If three coal plant critics were to get elected in a clean sweep, opponents would comprise a majority of the five-member City Commission after being sworn in in early January.

That's why the date of a new city manager's selection could take on greater importance.

If plant proponents secure one to three of the seats, however, they will retain a majority on the commission.