Council Hires Firm To Help Hire New City Manager
BRISTOL, Va. – Citing lower costs and the company’s familiarity with Bristol, city leaders Friday selected a search firm to help them hire a new city manager.
A split City Council voted 3-2 to select Springsted, a Minnesota-based firm with offices in Richmond, Va., to conduct the search for a replacement for retiring Bill Dennison. In the past two years, the city has retained Springsted to help hire new city directors of public works and parks and recreation.
“I based my selection on Springsted’s familiarity with Bristol and that Springsted has placed more city managers and county administrators in Virginia than the other firms,” Mayor Jim Rector said after the vote. “And they do have an office in Virginia.”
Earlier this week, council members met in separate executive sessions with three finalists for the search job – Springsted and Georgia-based Mercer Group and Slavin Management Consultants.
Vice Mayor Ernie Sprouse, who made Friday’s motion to hire Springsted, said cost influenced his decision.
“All three were very good, but cost was important and Springsted had the least bid,” Sprouse said.
Springsted’s bid was for $17,300, while Slavin’s was $22,800 and Mercer’s was $23,000.
Part of the price disparity, Rector said, was because Springsted already had developed a profile of the city during its previous search work.
The city has allocated $25,000 for the search, but officials previously said the cost might exceed that figure. Rector said they now hope the process can be completed for less than $25,000.
Councilman Guy Odum voted for Mercer, saying cost shouldn’t be the primary factor.
“I would like for the city to have someone with fresh perspective, who can look at things with fresh eyes,” Odum said. “I’m a big fiscal conservative, but in this instance, cost is probably the least important consideration we need to look at when it comes to a job as important as the city manager.”
Councilman Jim Heaney also supported Mercer, saying he believed they had more to offer.
“Mercer seemed to have a greater network, based on 20 offices in 13 states,” Heaney said. “And they offered a two-year replacement guarantee versus a one year from the others. I don’t feel one year is sufficient.”
Councilman Fred Bowman, who also voted for Springsted, said he believes most such firms function within similar networks.
“I looked at the cost, but I also looked at the good job they [Springsted] did filling our vacancies in public works and parks and rec. But it was hard because they were all good,” Bowman said.
With the selection complete, Odum said he’s ready to move on.
“We disagreed about who should conduct the search, but I plan to support Springsted 100 percent in getting us a new city manager,” Odum said.
The search for a replacement is expected to begin formally later this month and should be completed by year’s end, when the current city manager is scheduled to retire.
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Reader Reactions
Our city must NOT be broke if it can waste this kind of money to look through resumes and make phone calls. I thought that was what council was supposed to do. If they hire one that doesn’t work out-fire him or her !!
LOL WHAT A JOKE !!!!!!
The city can place an ad on VAULT.com and get the same people they are paying money to get applications from.
I think that when rector,dennison,and sprouse were put on the council it was a very big mistake that has cost this city over and over.someone should be hired to oversee the books to see just what costs the city so much that we are broke.They should have to be audited spontaneously and account for the ways they have spent our money.Its our taxes and incoming money that is being wasted.The economy is bad,yes,but the way that the money has been spent is worse i believe.Like Nancy marney said,how will anyone loan us any money when we are this broke?We need to get new folks in there to replace those 3 aforementioned guys in May.please don’t vote for these,or I believe our troubles will only get worse.We need a more fairly balanced council set up,so we can get good choices on things that come before the council.Thank you.
I sure hope when we get a new city manager that he will care a little more about the poor end of town,like where in the past and present the current leaders have not cared at all. As for me, they have allowed my home to be flooded when it rains hard,by adding lots of run off from the subdivisions up above of us. They denied having any part in doing so. They continue to play with a ,so called holding pond on valley drive,hiring more people to look at it and wasting more money they say we dont have.I need my job and am in hopes of keeping it through all this trouble im having with them.Do you have any comments or similar situations in the past or present ?If so please comment.we need management that cares about the people since all of us pay taxes.
On the other hand,the up scale part of town get the help they need right away with maybe one phone call .They dont have to have a study done or so called experts hired to solve the problems they have.IM glad they did get the help they need,but we would also like some help and the same treatment down here.But being in the wrong part of town,when we tried to get help from some of the city leaders all I got so far is my job threatened and the people looking at the pond over and over.It’s never worked since day one and its so hard to be sure how to fix it when the problem is so easy to see.I think the leaders aren’t ready to admit they made another big mistake,wasting another large amount of money,that Bill Dennison says wasn’t realy that much any way.when we are paying taxes,they should admit their faults.Aren’t we all human?
When he makes comments like that,and like the one he made and i quote saying"I never thought that would work anyway,I had my doubts all along”,but he approved it ,accepted it as completed and payed for it.who do you think picks up the cost of these continual wasteful situations that we have seen under his management? so, I think we should run him out on a rail and not even wait until he complets his time.what good is he doing?
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