By Kristine Thomas
The search has begun for a new Mt. Angel City administrator.
At the Nov. 2 meeting, Mt. Angel City Council members unanimously agreed to approve the city administrator profile and salary range for the recruitment process.
Salary for the new city administrator will be between $60,000 and $80,000 a year, depending on qualifications. The starting salary would be set by the city council when approving the employment agreement with the new administrator. The beginning salary was $68,271 for the previous city administrator.
Interim City Administrator Pete Wall is conducting the search, including preparing the recruitment brochure and posting advertisements for the national outreach, with a focus on the West Coast.
Wall said the job opening was posted the week of Nov. 9 to Nov. 13 on the Web sites of the International City Managers’ Association, League of Oregon Cities, League of California Cities and Association of Washington Cities. The application deadline is Dec. 21.
“We may also buy print advertisements in their monthly newsletters or magazines depending on publication deadlines,” Wall said. “We will also do some direct mailings of the brochure and a letter to selected cities likely to have an assistant city manager or other similar positions.”
To determine what the salary range should be, Wall conducted a survey of the Oregon City Manager list for communities with a population less than 7,500.
“We received 23 responses. The responses ranges from $49,235 from one of the smaller cities to $101,588 plus car allowance for one of the larger cities,” Wall wrote in a memo to the city council. “If the top city and the lowest city are eliminated, the average salary of the remaining cities is slightly over $75,000.”
Once applications are received, there will be a review by City Administrator Recruitment Committee members Mayor Rick Schiedler and Councilors Kelly Grassman and Andy Otte. The committee will present of list of potential candidates to the council at its Jan. 4 meeting.
“After that, the background checks of the semi-finalists will be present to the city council at its February meeting to finalize the list of applicants for interviews,” Wall said. “The current schedule is to hold interviews with the finalists on Feb. 12 and 13.”
