Riverside extends job offer to candidate

RIVERSIDE ? The Riverside City Council interviewed four applicants for its city administrator/clerk position during a closed session Thursday. After coming out of closed session, the council voted to authorize Mayor Bill Poch and Pat Callahan of Snyder and Associates to negotiate a contract with one of the applicants.

Callahan said in an interview today that he has been in communication with Poch and the applicant Monday in order to work out a deal. If a deal can be reached today, Callahan will announce the terms of the contract at a special session at Riverside?s City Hall tonight at 5:30 p.m. The council can then decide if it wants to accept the contract.

?I?m responsible for coordinating between the two parties,? Callahan said. ?I tell people I play Henry Kissinger.?

Callahan said 25 people applied for the city administrator/clerk position, which is lower than normal. He said that all of the applicants are from Iowa. He said that was a reflection of the city?s advertising of the position, which was mostly local. He has worked with other cities of similar size who advertise in nation-wide city administrator publications and which therefore receive more applicants and applicants from more states.

Snyder and Associates took those 25 applications and picked out the four best applicants. Those four met with the council Thursday in a series of interviews. The council was divided into groups of two, and each candidate spent time with each of the three groups of two. Callahan said this was the informal part of the interview in which the councilors learned about the applicant?s interests. The second part of the interviews was done in front of the whole council and was the formal part when the council asked about the applicants? qualifications.

Councilors Bob Schneider, Ralph Schnoebelen and Christine Kirkwood said they were impressed by all of the candidates and that any of them would have made a good city administrator/clerk. Councilors Kevin Kiene and Nate Kasdorf and Mayor Poch could not be reached for comment.