Finalists Chosen
Last night we had a special meeting at 5:00 PM to review the resumes of a dozen semifinalists recommended to us by our consultants for the city manager search. This meeting was not in fact a closed session, as indicated on the agenda, since our attorneys informed us that there was not a basis in the Open Meeting Law for closing the meeting. Instead, to preserve private applicant data, we simply referred to each applicant by a number instead of a name.
To select finalists, each member of the council submitted a list of the applicants (by numbers) that we wished to interview. A councilmember could select all applicants, none, or any number in between. There was remarkable consensus -- two candidates were on the lists of all five of us, and another three were each on 4 of 5 lists. That gave us five candidates, the very number our consultant recommended we select as finalists. I offered a motion to name those five as our finalists; Erik Hjelle gave his second; and the motion carried unanimously.
The finalists, whose names are now public, are as follows (in alphabetical order, with their current or most recent city management position):
1. James W. Antonen, former City Manager of Davis, California
2. William P. Barlow, Village Manager of Winfield, Illinois
3. Daniel J. Donahue, former City Manager of New Hope, Minnesota
4. Stephen P. King, City Administrator of South Saint Paul, Minnesota
5. Timothy Madigan, City Administrator of Faribault, Minnesota
We also agreed unanimously on the next steps in the process. The plan is to have the finalists interviewed by our two advisory panels on January 6th or 7th. We will ask the panels to make a written report to us no later than Monday, January 12th. After reviewing the reports and interviews of the panels, we will conduct our own interviews of all five finalists later that week (most likely on January 14th).
UPDATE: The council was just informed that Mr. Barlow has accepted another job and removed himself from consideration. So, we will proceed with the four remaining finalists.
To select finalists, each member of the council submitted a list of the applicants (by numbers) that we wished to interview. A councilmember could select all applicants, none, or any number in between. There was remarkable consensus -- two candidates were on the lists of all five of us, and another three were each on 4 of 5 lists. That gave us five candidates, the very number our consultant recommended we select as finalists. I offered a motion to name those five as our finalists; Erik Hjelle gave his second; and the motion carried unanimously.
The finalists, whose names are now public, are as follows (in alphabetical order, with their current or most recent city management position):
1. James W. Antonen, former City Manager of Davis, California
2. William P. Barlow, Village Manager of Winfield, Illinois
3. Daniel J. Donahue, former City Manager of New Hope, Minnesota
4. Stephen P. King, City Administrator of South Saint Paul, Minnesota
5. Timothy Madigan, City Administrator of Faribault, Minnesota
We also agreed unanimously on the next steps in the process. The plan is to have the finalists interviewed by our two advisory panels on January 6th or 7th. We will ask the panels to make a written report to us no later than Monday, January 12th. After reviewing the reports and interviews of the panels, we will conduct our own interviews of all five finalists later that week (most likely on January 14th).
UPDATE: The council was just informed that Mr. Barlow has accepted another job and removed himself from consideration. So, we will proceed with the four remaining finalists.
Labels: manager search, process
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