Cedar Rapids lands new city manager

Jeff Pomeranz, city manager for the last 12 years in the fast-growing and prosperous Des Moines suburb of West Des Moines, will become the city of Cedar Rapids' new city manager.

Mayor Ron Corbett and other members of the City Council will introduce Pomeranz, 52, at a news conference at 10 a.m. today at the Veterans Memorial Building, where City Hall will return once the flood-damaged May's Island building is renovated.

The council formally votes on hiring Pomeranz on Tuesday. Monica Vernon, chairwoman of the council's Personnel Committee that conducted the city manager search, predicted a 9-0 vote.

Vernon, the three other members of the committee - Justin Shields, Don Karr and Chuck Swore - and Corbett on Tuesday said the hiring of Pomeranz, which comes without the more-typical and lengthy national search for candidates, should not surprise anyone.

From the start, they said the entire council made it clear that its preference would be to pick a city manager from one of a few of Iowa's most successful cities.

That's what they got in Pomeranz, they said.

Vernon said Pomeranz was a “perfect fit for Cedar Rapids.”

She called him “extremely experienced” and noted that he's held three successful city manager jobs, one in Del Rio, Texas, one in Port Angeles, Wash., and “of course, most notably for us,” the job in West Des Moines.

“To me the proof is in the pudding,” Vernon said, pointing to

what she said was the city of West Des Moines' success in growth and development in the time Pomeranz has been city manager there.

Shields, Karr and Swore heaped similar praise on Pomeranz.

Pat Shey, a council member who is not on the Personnel Committee, on Tuesday said his path has crossed Pomeranz's many times over the years.

“Jeff is a rare blend of skill, experience and judgment, with the connections and people skills to move the city forward,” Shey said.

Success story

Corbett said many people in the state of Iowa are familiar with “the success story of West Des Moines.”

“Wow, there's a lot of action in this town,” Corbett said of the city with a population of about 55,400 people. Cedar Rapids' population is about 128,000, according to a 2008 Census Bureau estimate.

Corbett cited West Des Moines' success in luring a large number of jobs to the city, including its ability to land Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and Aviva USA insurance into large office buildings. West Des Moines also has signed a development agreement for Microsoft to locate there. Corbett pointed, too, to the popular Jordan Creek Town Center mall and two new hospitals.

He said Pomeranz's work on the hospital projects will help the city of Cedar Rapids as it develops its new Medical District. Karr said he hoped Pomeranz might have some ideas for the long-struggling Westdale Mall.

‘Team work'

In a phone interview last evening, Pomeranz who grew up on Long Island, N.Y. and has a master's degree in public administration from the University of Alabama, agreed with Corbett.

He said West Des Moines has been “one of the most successful cities in the state,” and he said over the last 15 years it has seen “tremendous” job growth, “thriving” employers and an “expanding” retail climate. He said the success took “team work” and a belief in “going after our goals.”

In Cedar Rapids, he said he sees great opportunity, particularly so because he said “a lot of hard work that's already been done in the community.”

“The way I've been successful in West Des Moines is to be aggressive, to look for innovative ways to get things done and to really go after things. That's my style,” he said.

Corbett on Tuesday applauded the council's Personnel Committee for getting Pomeranz hired just two months after Jim Prosser, the city's first city manager, signed a “separation agreement” with the council.

Vernon said she made an initial contact with Pomeranz some weeks ago and began courting him for the Cedar Rapids job. In intervening weeks, each of the city's nine council members met with him and most talked with him on the phone, she said.

Both Swore and Shields were on the City Council when it voted to hire Prosser in 2006 after a national search, and both said Tuesday they had gotten to know Pomeranz better in this hiring process than they had Prosser in the longer, more costly one.

Corbett said he hoped Pomeranz could start the Cedar Rapids job after Labor Day. He said details of Pomeranz's contract will be announced today.

Russ Trimble, a West Des Moines City Council member, called Pomeranz “a great guy” and said he was “incredible at what he does.”

“I wouldn't doubt other cities are trying to hire him,” Trimble said.