After Thursday’s deadline to apply for the city manager position passed, there were 31 eligible applications to succeed current City Manager Buzzy Newman, according to city staff.
Now, the Henderson City Commission will begin the process of hiring a replacement for Newman, who has said he wants to retire at the end of February.
Mayor Brad Staton said he and the commissioners have been forwarded the applications for review.
He said the commission will conduct an executive session soon—likely at its next regular meeting—to discuss the applicants and winnow down to top candidates.
After that, the commission will begin conducting interviews, he said. Again, he said the commission will conduct executive sessions so that all members can be present to interview.
Staton has said in the past that he wants the decision on the next city manager to be made by the commission and not other members of city staff. He said the city manager answers directly to the commission, so it’s appropriate for commissioners to make the decision.
The process gets a little complicated, though, because when a quorum of commissioners meets, it must be advertised as a public meeting. And when discussing personnel issues, the commission must retire to executive session.
Furthermore, Staton said the applicants’ privacy will be protected so that it doesn’t endanger the status of their current employment.
Finding a method to go from an open meeting to an executive session and to an interview and then getting the interviewees in front of the commission without breaching their privacy will be a challenge, Staton said.
Additionally, the mayor said circumstances dictate that the current commission go through with the new city manager hiring. Because Newman wants to retire at the end of February, he’d like to have a new hire announced December.
A December announcement would allow a new employee who is from out of town or at a different workplace the ability to give notice and still start at the city in January, he said. The mayor said that he wants the new hire to work alongside Newman for a bit to learn the processes in place locally.
Staton said that if circumstances allowed, he would push back the hiring of the new city manager until the incoming commission was sworn in.
Because current Commissioner Austin Vowels is not running for re-election, the makeup of the commission come January will be different. How different, though, remains to be seen. Commissioners Rodney Thomas, Nick Whitt and Robert Pruitt are running for re-election. Challengers Dwight Williams, Tom Williams, Jay Randolph and Kelsey Hargis also want a seat.