Published: January 12, 2008 02:08 am            

City manager field down to three

Personal interviews scheduled for Friday

FAIRMONT — After only a few weeks, the 25 applicants initially vying for City Manager Bruce McDaniel’s job have been narrowed down to just three.

Mayor Scott Sears, who sits on the 12-member committee appointed in December to sift through the applications, said the group conducted phone interviews with the top six candidates Thursday evening.

The group then chose the best three, who will be interviewed next Friday by council members and city department heads. Ultimately, council is expected to vote on and hire the new employee at its next meeting on Jan. 22.

“Basically we went through the 25 applicants and evaluated each person based on what we feel we are looking for in a good, qualified city manager,” Sears said. “We found three and we will go ahead and put a timeline together and probably start their personal interviews next Friday the 18th.”

Of the three final candidates, Sears said two hail from out of state and one is from in-state. He said two of the applicants are currently employed as city managers in other communities and that all of them asked that their names not be released yet.

He added that none of the three finalists is currently a member of the Fairmont city staff.

Of the 25 original applicants, Sears said there were 17 out-of-state applicants and eight in-state, with one member of the city’s current staff in the mix. However, Sears declined to reveal who the staff member was.

Sears said the 12-member search committee, which consists of council members, city employees and community members, met a total of three times after being appointed in December for this task.

At the first meeting, they each received the applications and reviewed them until early last week when they met again and narrowed the choices down to six. Then Thursday, the phone interviews were conducted and the short list was formed, which Sears said concludes the official work of the group.

“The search committee, we couldn’t have asked more from them. They gave everyone the same opportunities. Everyone was on the same level playing field,” he said. “I know we ended up with the three most qualified people to move Fairmont in the best direction for the future.”

The group consists of members Dixie Yann, the Rev. D.D. Meighen, Greg Hinton and Ron Straight from the community; city employees Matt Pigott, Dave Whiteman and Joe Feltz; Sears and councilmen Matt Delligatti and Bill Burdick.

McDaniel’s retirement is officially slated for Jan. 27, and officials expect there will be no problems with the transition to his replacement before he leaves.

Overall, Sears said this entire process has gone well and in the end is expected to foster a positive situation for Fairmont.

“Fairmont was due for a change of leadership,” Sears said. “I think with these three applicants that we will see some new styles of leadership and new ideas that will lead us to future growth.”

E-mail Mallory Panuska at mpanuska@timeswv.com.

        

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