Hiring a City Administrator

Hendersonville’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BOMA) will take another step toward hiring a City Administrator next week, reports the Hendersonville Standard:

After meeting the final two candidates in person last week and interviewing them via Zoom this week, the Hendersonville Board of Mayor and Aldermen is expected to appoint the city’s first city administrator at a meeting on July 28.  

Carmen Davis, a former Hines County, Miss., county administrator and David Strahl, an interim village manager from Schiller Park, Ill., were interviewed for about an hour each on Tuesday. Gary Jaeckel, an advisor with the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS), who also sat on the steering committee that vetted the candidates, moderated the interviews.

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https://www.hendersonvillestandard.com/news/vote-to-choose-first-city-administrator-expected-tuesday/article_66d20a0a-ccd6-11ea-88fc-ebaf83a616b2.html

The Secret List

Who will be Hendersonville's next (first) City Administrator?

Well, we can't know because City officials are keeping the names of the five finalists secret. This seems to fly in the face of open records laws, but City officials insist their behind the scenes behavior is totally appropriate.

The Hendersonville Standard has more:

The list of those vying to be Hendersonville’s first permanent city administrator has been narrowed down to five, according to Dave LeMarbre who currently holds the position on an interim basis.   

The list will be narrowed down further before it’s made public who the final candidates are, LeMarbre added. 

The candidates include: 

A county administrator from Mississippi; a chief of staff for a city council in Wisconsin; a former city manager from Ohio; a police chief from Kansas; a chief administrative officer for a mayor in Alabama; a deputy city manager from a city larger than Hendersonville in Virginia; a chief of staff for a city manager in a large city in Florida; an interim village manager in Illinois; a city manager from a small East Tennessee town; the chief executive and administrative officer for a Pennsylvania city of similar size and budget to Hendersonville; and a town manager for a small town in North Carolina with a budget about one-fourth the size of Hendersonville’s.

One woman and one professional who is currently working in Tennessee are among the 11 candidates. None of the candidates are former or current Hendersonville employees, nor are any of the candidates current or former Hendersonville elected officials. 

The secrecy surrounding the process is allegedly to avoid further "political strife." However, it seems that by keeping the names of applicants secret, the process is only adding to the tension surrounding the process.

Typically, the selection process for public officials is relatively transparent. Lists of names are released once the application deadline is met. As the process narrows candidates, the list of finalists is also typically released. Often, meetings to narrow candidates are held in public, with opportunities for public forums or other comment on potential leaders.

It's not clear what statutory authority City Attorney John Bradley is using to justify this super secret process.

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The Case for a City Administrator

Hendersonville's late audit may be a good example of why Aldermen voted recently to hire a City Administrator.

Here's more on the audit situation:

Municipal audits are due within six months of the end of the fiscal year, which is June 30. On Tuesday, Kraft auditors explained why Hendersonville’s 2018 fiscal year audit was turned into the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office four months passed the Dec. 30, 2018 deadline.

Auditors attributed the problem to an extended vacancy in the assistant finance director position from late August, 2018 through March of 2019.

“The financial statements were unable to be issued timely to allow the users to assess the financial position of the City,” according to the audit.

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City Administrator Coming to Hendersonville

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted Tuesday night to add the position of City Administrator in 2020, just ahead of the Mayoral Election next year.

Tena Lee has more:

According to the ordinance passed by city leaders on Tuesday, the city administrator will:

-          Administer the business of the municipality

-          Employ, promote, discipline, suspend and discharge all employees other than department heads

-          Recommend to the Board the appointment of department heads as well as oversee and discipline department heads

-          Act as a purchasing agent for the city

-          Prepare and submit the annual city budget

The vote was 7-6 in favor of creating the new position.

The move means the City's next Mayor will take office with the benefit of a new position dedicated to handling much of the day-to-day administration of the City.

Current Mayor Jamie Clary, so far largely incapable of actually doing his job, opposed the move. It seems he'd prefer the current chaotic management of city government to being relieved of the most mundane tasks -- tasks which he's mismanaged throughout his brief, tumultuous tenure.

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For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews