Council mulls manager search

City Council members are researching different options for recruiting a new city manager, including hiring a private company to recruit qualified candidates.

But councilors won’t decide for at least two weeks which option to pursue as they seek to replace Steve Bogart, who announced last month that he’s retiring Sept. 23.

Mayor Dennis Dorrah this week mailed a letter to about 160 city managers and department heads from Oregon cities with populations between 5,000 and 20,000, notifying them of Baker City’s opening.

“I sent out a brief letter saying, ‘hey if you are interested, send us your resume,’ ” Dorrah said during Tuesday’s Council meeting.

The letter briefly describes the city and the job.

“The reason I did that was there would be real advantages in finding someone from Oregon that would be interested,” he said.

Dorrah told council members Tuesday that he thinks Baker City would benefit from hiring a manager who’s familiar with Oregon laws that could affect cities.

“That’s a fairly short time frame, and we’ll know before our next council meeting how many responses we have,” he said.

The next regular meeting is set for July 27.

Dorrah also encourages local residents, including city employees, to submit their resumes.

Bogart thanked Dorrah for taking the initiative in getting the ball rolling.

However, Bogart said he believes the option of hiring a recruitment firm could speed the process and eliminate potential headaches for the seven councilors, who will choose the new manager.

“A large number of city manager candidates do come from other existing city managers and department managers around the state,” Bogart said.

However, he said that each city manager Dorrah sent a letter to likely has received multiple similar solicitations recently.

Dorrah indicated concern during a phone conversation on Wednesday about the letter he sent out.

“It was enlightening that they get three or four requests from recruiters and cities per week. Wow, I hope our letter doesn’t get get lost in the shuffle,” he said.

Instead of having the councilors spend their time and resources searching for qualified applicants, Bogart suggested they hire an outside recruitment firm.

“You can contact the League of Oregon Cities to do the recruitment for you. The review and selection process are yours,” he said. “Sometimes or to some extent they do some preliminary screening to make sure those you are looking at are only qualified candidates,” he said.

He said there also were a number of private recruitment companies that recruit aggressively. They do charge more, though.

Bogart cited an example from the city of Newcastle, Wash., which hired Prothman, a recruitment firm.

“Many (private firms) have a pretty good reputation and provides the guarantees that you are paying for,” he said.

He said the Prothman firm said if a manager is hired but does not last one year, they will re-advertise and recruit for the city.

Bogart told councilors that although hiring a recruiting firm can be more expensive, it also was a more extensive process.

In other business Tuesday, councilors approved the Baker City Vision 2030 document.

The document was drafted as a result of 14 focus groups asking community residents what they wanted to see Baker City become.

Councilors also debated the accuracy of the minutes for the Council’s special budget meeting on June 14.

Calder said the minutes are a misrepresentation of what was covered. She contends the draft minutes, as given to the Council for approval Tuesday, express opinion and do not fully describe the meeting.

Bogart said the minutes should only be a brief explanation of what occurred at the meeting for future reference.

 “If it covers more than two pages for one hour, you’re getting more information than you need,” he said.

Bogart said the June 14 meeting was also recorded in both audio and video format, and copies of both are available at City Hall and at the library.

Councilor Milo Pope disputed Calder’s contention that the minutes misrepresented the June 14 meeting.

Pope made a motion to approve the minutes as they were submitted.

After a 25-minute discussion about what should go into the minutes and what shouldn’t, the Council voted 4-3 to approve the minutes.

Calder, along with Councilors Gail Duman and Aletha Bonebrake voted no.

Pope, along with Dorrah and Councilors Sam Bass and Clair Button voted yes.

Also on Tuesday, Calder was appointed to serve as the city’s representative on the Transient Lodging Tax Committee.

Dorrah was appointed to the Northeast Oregon Economic Development District (NEOEDD).

And Button was appointed to the Northeast Oregon Housing  Authority.