Clarify the search process

The Cedar Rapids City Council's personnel committee has a big job - deciding how best to search for a new city manager. And we hope the committee soon will give us a clearer picture on how the council plans to proceed.

So far, clarity has not emerged. It's not certain exactly how a search will be conducted and who exactly will do the searching. There's talk of the council taking the lead, perhaps with an assist from the city's human resources department.

Talk of using an outside, professional, national search firm has been put on the back burner. It appears that a regional search, focused locally and within Iowa, will happen first.

It's possible that on Monday the personnel committee, with council members Monica Vernon, Chuck Swore, Justin Shields and Don Karr, could settle on a job description for the manager's post. That would be an important step, obviously, in determining what exactly city leaders are looking for in the next manager.

So far, that's also been unclear. Some are arguing for private-sector experience while others prefer a candidate who has run a city government. A local candidate knows the landscape, but an outsider might bring a fresh perspective.

In any event, we hope the council gets focused and soon.

Although we don't want to see a rushed process, we do want to see an expedited effort to make sure that the city has professional management in place sooner than later. So far, this council generally has done a good job moving issues along, and we hope that sense of urgency carries over to the search for a manager.

But speed should not mean secrecy.

The council should lay out a clear search process with objectives and timelines that can be judged by the residents who pay the bills.

We expect regular, candid updates on the status of the search and the full disclosure of the names of finalists in advance of any council vote to fill the position.

We don't want the manager's hiring process to mirror the whirlwind hiring of John Frew, whose Frew Nations Group was hired last month to oversee construction of a downtown events center. The hiring was publicly announced on a Monday and approved by the council the following evening. We don't object to Frew's hiring, but that's not enough time for serious public scrutiny.

Basically, we believe the public has a right to know how this hiring will unfold, and, ahead of a fateful final decision, who is being seriously considered for the job. We'd like to avoid a shadowy process that confuses and then surprises.

We understand that hiring a manager can be a tough, touchy task. But the council needs to remember that above the manager and the council on the city organizational chart are the people.

Don't leave your bosses in the dark.

-- The Gazette Editorial Board