City manager search narrows

Six finalists to

interview later

this month

BY RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM--The city council's search for a successor to retiring City Manager Dick Salvati took a major step toward completion Tuesday with the selection of six candidates for interviews.

The actual selection will be made at a 4:15 p.m. council session Saturday, April 21. The selection will be preceded by a marathon, two-day orientation and interviewing process.

During a meeting with the city's recruiting consultant, James Brimeyer, councilors and the public utility commissioners considered a dozen applications.

The potential finalists had been pared down from 50 to 60 applications. Brimeyer had prepared two-page summaries on each applicant. After going through each application with the council and PUC members, he asked each city representative to select six from the group and show their preference as he went through the list. The six receiving the most votes became the finalists.

The first day of the selection process will be devoted to introducing the candidates and their spouses to the community. Then the candidates will interview Saturday morning with a council-PUC pair. Following lunch, the candidates will be interviewed by the entire council. Then the council will convene officially to select the successful candidate.

All finalists are currently in Minnesota and Iowa, with the exception of one who is several states away but has nearby family connections. All have extensive experience in running small city governments.

"After interviewing half the town, we developed a position profile, then advertised the position," Brimeyer explained, and "50 to 60 responded." Brimeyer's company sent out more than 300 position profiles to potential candidates. However, one of the dozen potential finalists wasn't on the list and had responded to an advertisement.

Brimeyer did not recommend two of the 12, but he included them in case the council wanted to interview them. They did not make the list of finalists.

The respondents impressed Brimeyer because "for almost all, this is the only job they want," he said.

Councilor Clark Tuttle joked that one candidate, who became the sixth finalist, should be rejected because he had written in his application that "I believe in the New Ulm City Council."

The 12 applications submitted to the council came from men. "There were two or three women who responded," Brimeyer said, "but none had adequate qualifications for the job."

The council also discussed the role that the PUC members would play in the actual selection of the city manager. Both sides agreed that PUC commissioners would not make recommendations, but would give individual input during the interviewing process.