The City Commission established a timeline for the city manager search process and discussed key elements of a recruitment brochure during a special meeting Tuesday night. 

Catherine Tuck Parrish, vice president of Raftelis Financial Consultants, joined the meeting via Zoom and presented her recommendations for the timeline and brochure. 

Here is a breakdown of the most important dates regarding the search: 

• Wednesday, March 29: Parrish will post the city manager position in a number of publications and websites as well as on social media. In addition to the postings, Parrish said Raftelis will also directly reach out to some candidates with local government experience in the Kansas City metro area, Kansas, Missouri and other targeted Midwestern cities.

• Friday, May 5: Parrish said this will be the position’s “soft close” as the position will remain open for applicants, but Raftelis will begin reviewing applications.

• Tuesday, May 23: The City Commission and Parrish will virtually meet in a closed session to review the candidate applications and determine who to invite to virtual interviews.

• Tuesday, May 30: Virtual interviews begin and the commission will narrow the pool to determine who to invite to in-person meetings and interviews.

• Friday, June 16, and Saturday, June 17: In the evening of June 16, the commission will informally meet with each finalist candidate in small groups to give each candidate a chance to appear individually in front of the commissioners, Parrish said. Then starting in the morning of June 17, the commission will hold a whole group, in-person interview with each candidate. 

After these in-person meetings and interviews, the commission could ask Parrish to start background and reference checks on the top candidate, which could lead to an offer for the candidate.

Mayor Tim Reazin said the interviews and resumes of the candidates will be closed to the public in order to protect the confidentiality of the candidates so their current positions are not put into jeopardy. 

“Those folks haven’t potentially told their employer that they’re interviewing somewhere else, and the fact that it’s a personnel, internal interview, it’ll be closed,” Reazin said. 

Vice Mayor Tim Bruce added it might not be until the end of the process as to when the commission releases candidate information. 

“I mean, we are going to have to get to the point where we’ve made an offer and got somebody to be able to let that information out,” Bruce said. 

After reviewing the timeline, the commission examined key elements of the recruitment brochure. 

A particular minimum requirement Parrish will examine closely is the candidate’s experience and position in local government. 

“I will interpret that broadly,” Parrish said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a city, or a county, or a town, or a township, in a special district, you know, I will interpret it very broadly. What it won’t mean though is someone that has a job in state government or federal government only, or in the private sector.” 

The proposed description for the job opening notes the city manager should be an approachable leader with a track record of community engagement, and skilled at building partnerships with government, educational, private, and nonprofit organizations to achieve community goals. 

The ideal candidate will demonstrate prior success in attracting and encouraging business growth and will possess strong skills in deploying creative and innovative funding tools and incentives to stimulate economic development. They should be a skilled negotiator, able to negotiate with outside entities on behalf of the City.

Parrish and the commission also wants the candidate to have some supervision experience. 

Candidates who fill these minimum requirements will be looked at with more scrutiny using the preferred qualifications, Parrish said. 

The commission’s main concern under the preferred qualifications regarded the residency of the potential city manager. 

According to Parrish’s presentation, residency in Eudora is preferred, but not required of a candidate. However, it is expected the city manager will live within a reasonable driving distance of Eudora and be invested in the city’s future. 

Reazin said he wants to have a longer discussion with the rest of the commission regarding a candidate’s residency and what is a reasonable driving distance. 

Bruce said, however, this idea could be a useful strategy in negotiating with candidates. 

“It says it’s preferred, but not required,” Bruce said. “So that gives me the opportunity to go, ‘I love everything about your package, except you not living here. So, if you want to live here, here’s the deal.’” 

Parrish said she thinks a reasonable driving distance would be 30-40 minutes. 

Finally, Parrish recommended compensation for the position would be in the range of $150,000-$170,000, plus benefits, depending on qualifications. 

The commission will provide final feedback to Parrish on the timeline and brochure by Thursday, then Parrish will finalize the document by March 29 and open it to the public. 

The City Commission will hold a regularly scheduled meeting at 7 p.m. Monday. 

Reach reporter Jack Denebeim at [email protected].

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