MILL CREEK — As many cities do, Mill Creek trusted a recruiting firm to find and vet candidates for city manager. But of the five top contenders, one has dropped out and another is engaged in a public controversy.
It turns out that good city managers are hard to find. Few candidates have a flawless background. Accusations, critical audits, lawsuits and negative news reports are among the hazards of the job.
“City managers in general, because of their position in the community, can be a target for complaints,” said Byron Katsuyama of the Washington City and County Management Association.
After City Manager Ken Armstrong resigned Jan. 2, the Mill Creek council paid $23,000 to Florida-based recruiting firm Colin Baenziger &Associates to select candidates for the job and look into their backgrounds. The four finalists are coming to town this week to be interviewed.
The public, too, will have a chance to weigh in. A scoresheet will be provided at a public reception at 6 p.m. Thursday in the City Hall annex building.
Mill Creek has hired many city managers over the years. In fact, the City Council has forced half of them to resign since incorporation in 1983, including Armstrong.
“It’s going to be a tough choice” this time, “but this council is going to get it right,” Mayor Pam Pruitt said.
Scott Somers, the county manager in Clatsop County, Oregon, was among those recruited by the firm. Last Tuesday, the day the Mill Creek City Council named him as a finalist, Somers and the Clatsop County Commission received notice that a former employee intends to sue for wrongful termination.
Somers fired former Clatsop County Clerk Maeve Kennedy Grimes in December for two errors made on the 2014 election ballot. In an interview with The Herald, he said her claim for wrongful termination doesn’t hold water because he fired her for not following ballot proofreading procedures.
Still, the Clatsop County Commission is spending more than $10,000 to hire an outside party to review Somers’ performance, the Daily Astorian reported in February.
Another candidate who was asked to apply, Lake Forest Park City Administrator Donald “Pete” Rose, withdrew his name after the finalists were announced last week. Rose told the recruiter he wants to stay in Lake Forest Park to help solve financial problems and oversee the city’s takeover of a water district.
Like Somers, Rose was involved in a firing that was later disputed when he was the administrator for San Juan County. He settled a lawsuit in 2012 with a former county employee, the Journal of the San Juan Islands reported.
Another finalist, Richard Leahy, now the Woodinville city manager, faced a federal civil rights lawsuit related to jobs in 1999, according to court records. At the time, Leahy was the city administrator in Mukilteo. The plaintiff was seeking $100 million, and the case was terminated.
Finding lawsuits in a city manager’s background is not uncommon, said Katsuyama, who works with local governments at the nonprofit Municipal Research and Services Center. What matters is how serious a candidate’s past issues are, he said. He counts illegal and unethical behavior among the most concerning.
Colin Baenziger, of the Florida recruiting firm Mill Creek hired, said he was aware that Somers had fired the clerk, but the notice of her intent to sue came after he recommended the finalists to the city.
“It’s a concern anytime someone is filing a lawsuit,” he said. “But there are a lot of frivolous lawsuits filed.”
Baenziger said his job was to narrow the field of 62 candidates who applied to several screened semifinalists for the council to choose from. His firm as done similar work for the cities of Mountlake Terrace, Bellevue, Tacoma and Fife.
The firm conducts federal, state and county criminal background checks before recommending a candidate. It also searches for civil court cases at the county and federal levels.
Baenziger also looks at driving and financial records. He verifies education and the past 15 years of employment.
Baenziger asks the candidates for the names of about 20 references. He talks to at least eight and writes a summary of his findings for the council to read.
“Sometimes people don’t want to tell you the bad stuff, but if you talk to enough people you’ll find out,” he said.
He also runs each candidate through Google and includes news clippings in a lengthy document about each.
“I think they did a pretty good job of vetting the people they put forward,” Councilman Mike Todd said of the consultant.
Baenziger provided the council with 691 pages of documents in all, including resumes, cover letters, writing samples, background checks, reference summaries and the newspaper articles. Baenziger also provided a summary of facts about the candidates, but it did not include analysis from news reports or opinion pieces.
“We let them read all 600 pages,” Baenziger said.
Because the information came out a few days before the council had to select finalists, it was a challenge to read all of the material carefully, said Councilman Vincent Cavaleri.
“You’re glancing through it in a short amount of time,” he said.
Cavaleri said the council trusted the consulting firm to vet the candidates. But he plans on doing a “thorough secondary assessment” when the city manager hopefuls come to Mill Creek this week.
Mayor Pruitt echoed those sentiments.
“It appears they were pretty thorough,” she said of Baenziger’s research.
Pruitt said the council has had three “bad experiences” with past city managers and intends to avoid problems this time. The council expects to make a decision April 21.
Amy Nile: 425-339-3192; anile@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @AmyNileReports.
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