The timeline to select a new city manager is a little clearer, following the City Council’s vote to adopt a six-page profile for the position at a special meeting held Tuesday night.
The document sets the expectations, qualifications, and guidance for potential applicants, and will be used as a guide by a five-member screening committee to select finalists to replace former City Manager Thomas Ambrosino.
Applications for the position will be accepted through UMass-Boston’s Collins Center until May 25.
City Council President Leo Robinson presented the profile to the council for approval earlier this month. Councilor-at-Large Damali Vidot requested a subcommittee meeting to review the document and make revisions.
Tuesday night, Mary Aicardi from the Collins Center reviewed some of the revisions made to the document prior to final council approval.
Chief among the revisions was the inclusion of a salary range of plus or minus $200,000 per year, depending on qualifications.
“That is the industry standard these days and it gives you flexibility and it also gives out the idea that, with all due respect, you are not going to pay $300,000,” said Aicardi. “So it gives people a framework of what we are looking at, and obviously, the language of depending on qualifications gives you flexibility when you are negotiating.”
Vidot said she believed the subcommittee meeting was successful in helping to revise the position profile.
“This profile that we are adopting tonight is what the screening committee that we voted for will be using to pick our next city manager,” said Vidot. “It talks about the city and the practices that we have as a municipality.”
From now through May 25, Vidot said the Collins Center will be soliciting resumes for the position. During the next month, she said the Collins Center will also be meeting with the five-member steering committee to update it on issues such as developing questions for the interview process, the role of confidentiality in the search process, and further discussion on the profile.
“The first couple of weeks in June (the steering committee is) going to go over the resumes and do the interviews and (check) references while the Collins Center is facilitating this process with the expectation that in the first week of July, we should be getting some candidates back,” said Vidot. “That is when we should have the community input. Of course, things happen all the time and that might fluctuate a little bit, but as it stands, that is what we are anticipating and what we are hoping for.”
Once the finalists are in place, Vidot said it is expected that the public will have the opportunity to come in and ask them questions.