TREASURE ISLAND — City commissioners have started to whittle down 60 city manager applicants to potential candidates and then semi-finalists.
After that, they will choose a top administrative officer during a two-day interview exercise planned for June 19-20.
During a special meeting the afternoon of April 19, Doug Thomas, executive vice president of recruitment and leadership development with SRG, told commissioners after they select about eight to 12 candidates from resumes, the next stage is to learn more.
“The meat of today’s agenda will be going through candidates we feel are highly qualified for your consideration as semi-finalists,” he said.
SRG’s candidate search attracted 60 candidates, 54 men and six women. Nineteen applicants are from Florida, with the others from 24 states, Canada and India.
Considering only resumes and preliminary information provided by Thomas, commissioners rated about 19 semi-finalists on a score where 1 was a “yes,” 2 a “maybe,” and 3 “no.”
The two candidates who garnered the top scores, based solely on resumes, were Chuck Anderson, deputy city manager of Great Falls, Montana; and Scott Moye, commission manager for Ware County, Georgia.
Garnering the second highest scores were James Slaton, city manager and community redevelopment director for Lake Wales, Florida; and Taylor Brown, executive director of the Taylor County, Florida, development authority.
The five candidates ranked in third place were Angela Stone, assistant town manager in Hilton Head S.C.; Brian Kelly, director of administrative services in Sandy City, Utah; Carey Vargo, chief executive officer at ARRO Consulting, Inc. in Lititz, Pennsylvania; Paul Brake, city manager in Royal Oak, Michigan; and Robert Hillard, city manager-treasurer in Oberlin, Ohio.
Thomas told commissioners during the next few weeks his staff will conduct reference checks, along with a social media and news article search. Video interviews will be conducted by SRG staff. City commissioners will then get a chance to review the information and whittle down that candidate pool to the top 3 to 5 finalists.
Background and reference checks will then be conducted along with DISC assessments, which measure dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness, in a behavioral self-assessment that measures personality traits to help determine workplace behavior. Candidates will also be asked their first-year game plan if chosen.
Onsite interviews by commissioners and city senior staff, along with community tours and a public meet-and-greet, will take place June 19th.
On June 20th, candidates will be asked to make a 10 minute presentation about themselves and commissioners will conduct interviews in a public session; by the end of the evening a decision on selecting a new city manager should be made.
After serving the city nine years and coming up through the ranks of city government, former city manager Amy Davis announced her intention to leave office in February in order to take a position as assistant to Pinellas County Administrator Barry Burton.
Another former city manager, Garry Brumback, was brought out of retirement to serve in the interim.
