Norris reopens search for new city manager
The candidate the Norris City Council chose to offer the city manager position to has turned down the job, prompting the council to vote during a special session Monday night to reopen its search by posting a new advertisement in various media.
Council members agreed to repost the job and set a deadline of noon Sept. 9 to receive new applications. But the advertisement also says that “previous applicants need not re-apply,” which means that some of them still could be in the running, the council decided.
At the start of the Monday meeting, during which all council members except Will Grinder were present, Mayor Chris Mitchell handed out copies of an email from the top candidate, Joshua Ray, saying he would not be accepting the position. He was offered the job last Wednesday evening (Aug. 10), at a salary of $108,000 a year, plus benefits.
Ray, a North Carolina native who recently was terminated as city manager in Shelbyville, Tennessee, told Mitchell in an email on Saturday that a city in North Carolina had also made him an offer. He had already told Norris officials that he was competing for that job. That city wasn’t named, but it reportedly has a population of about 80,000, compared with Norris’ 1,629.
After learning that Ray had turned down the job, Councilwoman Loretta Painter suggested reopening the search, rather than choosing from among the applicants who responded to the city’s initial advertisement in June.
“I think we need to start the process all over again, to see if we can attract somebody else,” Painter said.
Councilman Bill Grieve agreed, saying, “I believe we need to start again, and tighten the requirements.”
Also in favor of reopening the process was Councilman Robert Sain. He suggested tightening the requirements in a new advertisement to say that a bachelor’s degree is required, not just that the candidate “should” have a degree in public or business administration, as the previous ad said.
Painter also recommended raising the upper end of the salary range for the job to $125,000. Although it was not included in the original advertisement, the council set the range to $75,000-$110,000 after receiving the initial applications.
Grieve initially spoke against raising the top end to $125,000, saying he felt the salary should be “$100,000 tops.”
But eventually the council agreed to set the new salary range to $80,000-$125,000 annually, “based on experience,” and directed that the salary range be included in the new ad.
The new schedule for the process of choosing the city manager includes first interviews of chosen candidates at 6 p.m. Sept. 20, 21 and 22; second interviews and a decision on making an offer at 6 p.m. Sept. 23; and looking at a possible counteroffer at 6 p.m. Sept. 26.
The council originally chose seven of the 47 applicants to interview for the position, and then narrowed the choice to two before choosing Ray as the finalist.
Among the seven semi-finalists was Joshua Anderson, who is an Anderson County commissioner and has been chairman of the commission for the past two years. The council did not advance his application to finalist because he has no city management experience.
In the meantime, Norris resident Joe Deatherage has agreed to fill in part-time as the interim city manager after Aug. 26, when former City Manager Scott Hackler’s part-time commitment ends.
Deatherage will work for minimum wage, the council decided. He also filled in as interim city manager six years ago for about three-and-a-half months, he said during Monday’s meeting.
“I was working eight hours a day then, but I’m going to be 89 years old this October, so I don’t want to do that again,” he said.
