December 8, 2005

By Robert Mihalek

This weekend three candidates are coming to Yellow Springs with the hopes of becoming the new Village manager.

The candidates are Thomas M. Carroll of Loveland, Eric A. Strahl of Ashaway, R.I., and Eric C. Swansen of Jackson Hole, Wyo.

The weekend begins with a public forum and meet-and-greet session with the candidates on Friday night, Dec. 9. The next morning, the candidates will interview with Village Council and the Village Manager Search Committee, which has led the selection process.

By Sunday, Dec. 11, Council could hire a new manager.

Carroll, Strahl and Swansen were selected for interviews out of a pool of 120 applicants.

On Monday, the search process took a dramatic turn when Village Council withdrew its offer to interview Teddy C. Ryan Jr. of Columbia, Pa. As a result, Council extended interview offers to Carroll and Strahl.

Another candidate, James C. Smith of Newport, R.I., was also initially invited to town for the interview process, but he dropped out of the running last week when he accepted a job offer from another community.

In anticipation of this weekend’s selection process, the News prepared a profile of Swansen. [A profile of Ryan was also prepared.] Because invitations were not extended to Carroll and Strahl until Monday night, the News did not have the opportunity to interview them, though information on their careers is also included in this article.

Eric Swansen

Swansen, who lives in Jackson Hole, Wyo., was the city manager of Farmersville, Calif., from 2003 to 2004. He has also been a senior management analyst with the city of Shoreline, Wash., where he reported to the city manager, from 1998 to 2003; a senior management analyst with the community development department of Deschutes County, Ore., from 1994 to 1998; and a management analyst in the public works department of Lacy, Wash., from 1991 to 1994.

He received a master of public administration from the University of Washington in 1990, and a BA in political science from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., in 1988. He also served several internships in municipal and federal government positions between 1986 and 1991.

During a phone interview on Sunday, he said he’s worked for “progressively larger communities” to gain experience and learn to be an “effective generalist.” During his career, he said, he’s had a variety of exposure to “key disciplines.”

Swansen said he would bring to the Village manager’s job in Yellow Springs “policy facilitation skills” to help Council and the community make decisions, and strong fiscal and management skills.

He said his fiscal skills could help the community devise solutions “to ensure the stability of services people expect.”

In addition, he said he has spent most of his career motivating people, helping people make good decisions and creating an environment “that rewards being innovative.”

He said he likes the fact that Yellow Springers have “high expectations of the Village government” and that they expect to play a role in the government’s decision-making processes.” He said he’s a “big believer in transparent government.”

He said he selected a career in public service because he can “make a meaningful difference.”

Swansen resigned from his manager’s job in Farmersville after a proposed utility user tax failed in the November 2004 election.

In the interview, Swansen said the failure of the user tax meant that Farmersville was facing cuts in its police department, which he said was the only thing left to cut. By resigning, Swansen said, he helped the city avoid reducing its law enforcement budget.

As the city manager in Farmersville, Swansen faced a serious financial crisis — which he and a new finance director discovered during his first week on the job, he said. The previous manager had failed to share financial audits with the city council, had never reconciled the city’s budgets based on the audits and had overestimated the city’s balance, or surplus, by $928,000, Swansen said.

The city had to increase utility fees “considerably” and had to find two new revenue sources, he said. But Swansen said one of those sources, the utility user fee, which he described as the more important of the two, failed at the polls.

Farmersville has not hired a new city manager for financial reasons, and the finance director has been taking on additional responsibility as the acting manager without additional pay, Swansen said.

After resigning from the Farmersville post, Swansen said, he and his wife, Shelley, moved to Wyoming, where his family has property. Since then, he’s been taking online courses in financial planning with Florida State and looking for work in a small community that has “high quality of life,” something that Yellow Springs offers, he said.

Swansen also said coming to Yellow Springs would allow him to return to his roots, since he grew up in the small college town of Lake Forest, Illinois.

He called Yellow Springs a “remarkable community,” noting that he’s researched the village and talked to people about Yellow Springs.

Thomas Carroll

Carroll is currently the acting manager of the city of Loveland. He joined the city of Loveland as the assistant city manager in November 2001.

He also served as the management service coordinator in the assistant city manager’s office for the city of Savannah, Ga., from August 1998 to November 2001; and management analyst in the city manager’s office with the city of Laramie, Wyo., from August 1997 to August 1998. Prior to those jobs he was a management intern in the city manager’s office of the city of Longmont, Colo., and a graduate intern in the public works department with the city of Bloomington, Ind.

He received a master of public affairs degree in city management from Indiana University in 1996, a master of arts in sociology, also from Indiana, in 1994, and a BA in history from the University of Virginia in 1992.

Council president Jocelyn Hardman said Carroll is also a candidate for the Loveland city manager’s job.

Eric Strahl

Strahl said in his application material that he served as a city manager for 26 years in six communities. Most recently he served as the town manager of Hopkinton, R.I., from 2003 to 2004, and the city manager of Boyne City, Mich., from 1997 to 2002. He also has served as the top administrator in Berea, Ky., Cortland. N.Y., and Kittery, Maine.

He has a master of public administration from Western Michigan University and a BA from the University of Michigan.

He said in his cover letter to the search committee that he and his wife, Vicki, are “willing to make a long-term commitment to our community.”

Contact: rmihalek@ysnews.com