The Belleville City Council met in a brief special session on Monday to discuss the 27 candidates they have for the vacant city manager’s position.
The council, plus a representative from the Civil Service Commission and the Downtown Development Authority, sifted through the 27 resumes and selected their favorites.
Councilwoman Kerreen Conley suggested a list of five candidates, designated by numbers, saying if they interviewed this group everyone who rated them would get to interview their first choice.
Mayor Tom Fielder added another candidate, who got a lot of votes from the group, and they settled on seeking interviews with the six.
The council agreed to set six, 45-minute interviews for Tuesday, Oct. 23, and Thursday, Oct. 25, starting at 6 p.m.
The scheduling and questions to ask the candidates will be discussed at the next meeting of the City Council on Oct. 15 and at that time the names of those agreeing to be interviewed will be released to the public.
Civil Service Commission representative Don Bluhm had researched some of the candidates on the internet and said they may not want to interview some of those candidates because of their backgrounds.
He said they could have a preliminary check and see who you want to interview and then go for a full background check later.
“I’d like to interview all six,” said Conley. “It’s pretty common in a city manager’s career to be terminated … They were strong in some of our minds, so we should interview them … Six is not too many. We may find four have jobs somewhere else…”
Councilman George Chedraue said one candidate is from Illinois and he wondered if the city would be flying him in. Mayor Fielder said the city does not transport candidates.
“Last time you had a guy come from Palm Beach, Florida,” Bluhm noted.
Resident Rick Dawson said being fired isn’t anything, “But if one has a felony or something blatant, that’s different… or numerous DUIs … That person should be cut … which would save time and meetings…”
“Should we have them make their case?” asked Mayor Fielder.
“A felony is a felony,” Dawson said. He asked if there were any attorneys applying and Bluhm said he thought they had three attorneys among the 27.
Resident Marian Caldwell asked if there was any way to make sure a candidate, once hired, stayed for a while.
“We can dismiss them any time we want to,” said Mayor Fielder, adding you can’t make them stay, however.
Members of the committee agreed to come up with a question for each candidate based on his/her resume and another general city manager question to be used during the interviews.
Although Frank Brown was first announced as the representative from the DDA, it really was DDA member Shawna Austin, did the rating of candidates with the hiring committee
PUBLISHED 10-4-07