Riverside tweaks open position

RIVERSIDE — Members of the Riverside City Council met with a consultant for a special meeting Tuesday night, where they discussed details of their open city administrator position.

The city hopes to fill the seat by mid-May, but consultant and former Washington City Administrator Brent Hinson said there were some details to iron out first.

One of those details was the position’s salary. Hinson said it would need to be higher than the city’s last administrator search in May of 2019, when the range was posted at $70,000-$80,000.

"It’s a tighter market than what we were at before, and the salary levels have gone significantly up,“ he said, before suggesting that the council advertise the salary range of $87,000-$97,000. ”I know that probably feels kind of strong, but I think that it’s a reflection of where we’re at in the market, and trying to attract the candidate that’s going to have the type of skills that’s going to help you move forward.“

Council members approved an $85,000-$95,000 range for the position. Mayor Allen Schneider said the higher wage still felt workable.

“I think if that’s a competitive salary, we want to attract strong candidates,” he said. “There’s nothing we can do about it, it’s reasonable in my mind.”

In another pivot from previous norms, the position will require the next city administrator to live within 20 miles of Riverside. While that stipulation was already included in the city handbook, former City Administrator Christine Yancey’s contract “highly encouraged” her to live within city limits, a clause that caused some controversy.

Hinson said the 20-mile rule was a reasonable expectation that would increase potential applicants’ interest.

“Say you’ve got somebody that’s a department head in Coralville,” he said. “They’re never going to get city administrator experience in Coralville, so city administrator of Riverside would be a great gig for five years, and really move you guys forward, and then you get the next person … it gives you more options.”

While it would allow the next administrator to live in adjacent communities, Hinson said it was a common enough practice that still encouraged local involvement.

“In the ideal, the person lives here and that’s an extra plus,” he said. “But I think there’s lots of ways to be engaged in a community other than just living there. And there’s people that could live in a community and not be very engaged.”

The city also set a slightly later schedule for its job interviews with applicants than it had initially planned. The new date is March 24 and 25. Hinson said it was best to keep the date away from conventional spring break windows in an effort to prevent scheduling conflicts.

Under the new timeline, the new administrator would be slated to start on May 15.

“It’s just good to kind of avoid those kind of things that can pull people away,” Hinson said. “March 24 and 25 is March Madness … but other than that, I’m not aware of too much else happening.”

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