October 13, 2005

By Robert Mihalek

The committee charged with helping select the next Village Manager has trimmed the list of viable candidates down to 19, members of the committee said.

Among the names on the candidate list is Phil Hawkey, the Village planner who is serving his second stint as the interim manager.

After soliciting applications from newspapers around Ohio and in several professional publications and organizations, the Village Manager Search Committee received 120 applications for the job of leading the Village government, committee members said. The committee solicited applications for more than a month, until its deadline of Oct. 1.

The committee agreed to trim the list of candidates to 19, said Al Schlueter, the chairman of the search committee, and Bruce Rickenbach, who is representing Village Council on the committee. Rickenbach said the committee picked the 19 “strongest” candidates “out of the bunch.”

The search committee has been charged by Council to help find a new manager to replace Rob Hillard, who resigned in September after nearly five years with the Village. Council is responsible for selecting the manager.

The 19 candidates selected by the committee to receive further consideration include 8 people from Ohio and 11 from other states, including Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Wyoming. In addition to Hawkey, Ohioans on the list are from Loveland, Centerville, Barberton, Cincinnati, Upper Arlington and Williamsburg.

Schlueter said committee members selected 10 applicants to help them come to a consensus on the candidates’ desired education and employment background. Schlueter and Rickenbach then used that same criteria to recommend nine other candidates. The committee agreed with their recommendations, Rickenbach said.

Rickenbach and Schlueter said the committee has sent the candidates a packet containing information on Yellow Springs and the Village government, a statement on the challenges facing the community and a description of the ideal Village manager. Each candidate was asked to tell the committee how his or her personality and experiences meets the challenge statement and manager profile, said Schlueter, who said he serves on the admissions committee for the medical school at Wright State.

The committee set Oct. 16 as the deadline for the candidates’ responses, the search committee members said.

Rickenbach and Schlueter said that based on the candidates’ responses, the search committee would narrow the pool of applicants to “semifinalists” during its meeting on Oct. 19. Schlueter said the committee would judge the candidates based on more subjective criteria, such as their compatibility with the community’s values, comfort with diversity and experience with smart-growth principles.

The committee is “looking, you might say, a little bit farther, a little deeper at the candidates,” Schlueter said.

The committee has devised a list of 12 items, based on “compatibility with the village’s values” and “personal qualities,” to evaluate the candidates. The list is based on qualities identified in the ideal manager description and from feedback from the community, Schlueter said.

The committee plans to conduct phone interviews with the semifinalists on or around Oct. 26, the committee members said.

After interviewing the candidates, the committee will narrow the applicants to a smaller number of finalists, who would be invited to Yellow Springs for interviews with Council and the search committee and a public event with the community, Schlueter and Rickenbach said.

Rickenbach said the committee needs to determine how the candidates would be presented to the community, which, he said, will be asked to provide feedback on the candidates. For instance, he said, the event could be a moderated forum or a less formal meet-and-greet gathering.

The search committee has not set a target for the number of semifinalists and finalists to select. Schlueter said that he hopes the number of semifinalists will be fewer than 10, and finalists would be under five. Rickenbach said the number of semifinalists and finalists selected will be “dictated by how strong the responses are” and “how strong the candidates look.”

In order to narrow the large pool of 120 applicants down to a manageable number, Schlueter said, the search committee members relied on objective criteria they could glean from resumes, such as experience and education.

Rickenbach praised the work of the Manager Search Committee members and the decision by Council to appoint a committee to lead the search, instead of hiring a paid consultant.

He pointed out that he had proposed the formation of a community selection committee both this year and in 2000, when he was also on Council. Five years ago, Council elected to hire a consultant to search for a manager to replace David Heckler. That process led to the selection of Hillard.

Rickenbach said he thought that “there was enough skill and talent” to use a committee to lead the selection process.

“The committee has worked very had, very diligently, very smartly,” Rickenbach said. The committee has “proved we have the moxie to do it ourselves so we don’t have to hire a high-priced professional” to lead the selection process, he said.

In addition to Schlueter and Rickenbach, the Village Manager Search Committee consists of Council member Mary J. Alexander, Public Works foreman Kelly Fox, Police Chief John Grote, police dispatcher Randall Newsome, Finance Director Sharon Potter and villager Len Kramer.

Contact: rmihalek@ysnews.com