Personnel committee begins city administrator search

The Washington Finance and Personnel Committee met last week to discuss how the city would replace City Administrator Dave Plyman. Plyman has announced that he will move to Rochelle, Ill. at the end of May to become that town?s city administrator. Plyman said he would probably leave around Memorial Day.

Committee Chairman Fred Stark was coincidentally in Rochelle the day Plyman announced his move to the northern Illinois town.

Stark said the city could hire a headhunter to find a qualified applicant. He said a headhunter would charge between $10,000 and $15,000. One option is to ask Jeff Schott of the University of Iowa where to look for applicants. Schott is the program director of the Institute of Public Affairs and has advised the council on other matters.

Plyman said that Schott is a good resource but that he wouldn?t do the city?s work for free.

?Jeff will just give you names of executive search firms,? said Plyman.

In an interview Monday, Schott said he and his organization help city governments identify what traits they?re looking for in an executive position such as a city administrator or police chief.

?Part of our job is moving the discussion along, to find out what they?re looking for,? said Schott. ?In other communities, we discuss how the responsibilities are divided between the administrator and the mayor.?

Plyman joked that there is a big difference between a headhunter and a search firm.

?Headhunters chop off heads,? he said. ?Executive search firms actually find people.?

Committee member Mike Roth said he wants to find a new city administrator in a timely manner.

?I?d like to get this done by mid-May,? he said.

Plyman remarked, ?That?s not going to happen.?

Plyman said whomever the council chooses will probably need to give two months notice to his or her current employer before joining the city?s staff.

In an interview Monday, Plyman said, ?If the person they chose is unemployed, there won?t be that kind of time requirement. In my case, the agreement was 60 days, which is common. For executive positions, you need to provide a transition period.?

Roth said he wants to use a number of tools to fill the position, namely a headhunter, Jeff Schott and the League of Cities? Web site.

Committee member Russ Zieglowsky asked the committee if $15,000 was too much money to spend on a headhunter. Roth said that $15,000 to find a good city administrator would be ?money well spent.?

Plyman said he could understand the reluctance to spend thousands of dollars on a search firm.

?It?s not cheap and we?re broke,? said Plyman.

Plyman is Washington?s first city administrator and has worked for the city since 2001. The council did not use a headhunter to find him.

Mayor Sandra Johnson asked the committee, ?Did we just get lucky when we chose Dave??

Plyman said the city of Rochelle did not use a search firm to hire him, but, unlike Washington, Rochelle has a human resources department to investigate applicants. Johnson ribbed Plyman that it was not too late for him to turn down the job offer.

In other matters, the committee members talked about sewer rates. Plyman said the sewer rates would probably have to be raised 50 to 75 percent. He also talked about restructuring how base rates are charged. Presently, individuals who live in nursing homes do not pay a separate base rate. The nursing home pays a single base rate.