December 1, 2005

By Robert Mihalek

One of three candidates invited to interview for the Village manager’s job withdrew his application on Tuesday.

The candidate, James C. Smith of Newport, R.I., informed the Village Manager Search Committee in an e-mail message that he has accepted an offer to become the city manager in Washington, N.C., and, therefore, is no longer interested in the manager’s job in Yellow Springs.

Smith has served as the city manager of Newport since 2002, and was the city manager in six other communities.

That leaves two candidates — Teddy C. Ryan Jr., the borough manager of Columbia, Penn., and Eric C. Swansen of Jackson Hole, Wyo., the former city manager of Farmersville, Calif. — who are scheduled to come to Yellow Springs during the weekend of Dec. 9–11 to interview for the Village manager’s position.

In addition to interviewing with Village Council and the search committee, the candidates will participate in a community forum on Friday, Dec. 9.

The committee used a ranking system to judge the top candidates who applied for the manager job. Smith, Ryan and Swansen received the highest rankings from the committee and were therefore offered opportunities to interview.

On Tuesday, Al Schlueter, the chairman of the search committee, said he was disappointed that Smith had not informed the committee earlier in the process that he was being considered for another municipal manager’s job.

Schlueter said the committee planned to meet on Wednesday to discuss its next steps. The meeting took place after the News went to press this week.

He said committee members had to decide whether they should invite one or two other candidates to Yellow Springs for interviews. Those candidates, Thomas Carroll, the assistant city manager of Loveland, and Eric A. Strahl, a former town manager of Hopkinton, R.I., received the next highest rankings from the committee.

Schlueter said search committee members are divided on how to proceed. He said some members feel it’s too late to invite additional candidates for interviews next weekend, while others think more candidates should be invited to give Council, the committee and the community a larger pool with which to compare the applicants.

Council president Jocelyn Hardman said she expects the search process to continue with Ryan and Swansen. She also said that a job search featuring highly qualified candidates will result in competition from other places.

Schlueter said that today municipal managers tend to move around often, but the committee did not hold such trends against candidates as long as they were moving in upward directions. The committee was told by others, including former Village Manager Rob Hillard, that changing positions is “part of the job, the politics of the job,” he said.

Contact: rmihalek@ysnews.com