The current search for a new City Administrator is not appropriate for the City of Clinton on several grounds. I think it best that I put down in writing some of the reasons why this is so.

1.  I have been asking some questions and they have raised more questions. After you decided to force the previous City Administrator to resign, did you request the advice and recommendation of our Human Resource Director for the best practice or most professional approach for proceeding? Did you request his advice regarding the engagement or not of a search firm to conduct a nationwide search? Did you request his advice regarding the means of advertising the position, the requirements of the job or qualifications of the candidate? If not, why not? Why did you not have the City Council discuss these issues at the time?

2.  The Council has only been presented with candidates who come from a fairly narrow radius around Clinton and only from Iowa. I have pointed out that Iowa has less than 1% of the population of this country. By so restricting our search, we are not considering 99% of the possible candidate pool. Why ignore most of the candidate pool?

3.  The candidates that we are considering come from communities smaller than Clinton by many orders of magnitude, have not spent the past decade as city manager of any community, much less one the size of Clinton, do not have Master's degrees or better in Public Administration, do not have a track record of the kind of economic development required by Clinton, have city staffs that are 1/10th ^{or smaller than Clinton's, do not have experience dealing with police, fire and municipal employee unions anything like what we have in Clinton, etc. Clinton recently had an economic incentive package to attract a new industrial prospect that the Iowa Department of Economic Development did not forward to the prospect because it was unresponsive to requirements. Clinton requires a higher skill level to compete. This job is not one that lends itself to on-the-job training.  Is the lack of candidates with the requisite qualifications a reflection of the current state of political affairs in Clinton?}

4.  You have advocated that we should make a speedy decision. I would rather find the right candidate rather than try and quickly decide on a candidate that a substantial number of the members of the Council do not feel comes with the necessary preparation and experience.

5.  I have been hearing for some time that prior to forcing out our previous City Administrator, you were in conversation with a preferred successor and that you recruited others to lobby certain members of the Council to vote for that candidate. Is this true?

Mike