Former Cedar Rapids city manager Prosser already a finalist for another job

Jim Prosser, the city of Cedar Rapids' former city manager who left the job on April 13 via a “separation agreement” with the City Council, isn't sitting around watching Oprah.

Prosser, 58, was one of three finalists for an executive director's post at the Municipal Technical Advisory Service at the University of Tennessee's Institute for Public Service.

In-person interviews for the finalists took place in recent days, according to an advisory service representative, and another candidate, not Prosser, has been selected for the post.

The newly selected director is Steven T. Thompson, who has been city manager of the city of Marco Island, Fla., since 2008. Marco Island has 16,000 year-round residents and a total of 60,000 from October through March. Thompson also has been a city manager in Deltona, Fla., and Greenville, S.C., and an assistant city manager in Virginia Beach, Va.

In the resume Prosser submitted for the post, which appears online, Prosser notes that the city of Cedar Rapids' 2008 flood ranks “as this country's fifth worst disaster in terms of damage to public facilities with losses in excess of $500 million."

Prosser seemingly was well equipped for the Tennessee post at a time when Nashville and other Tennessee cities have been hit hard by their own floods. The Municipal Technical Advisory Service provides consulting and training services to cities in Tennessee.

In his separation agreement with the city of Cedar Rapids, Prosser was paid an additional one-year of salary, $165,000, at the time of his departure.