Iowa City Council to decide this week on city manager opening

IOWA CITY - The Iowa City Council is scheduled to decide this week whether to undertake a national search for a new city manager or remove 'interim” from Geoff Fruin's title.

The council meets at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall.

Fruin, assistant city manager since 2011, assumed the interim city manager role in March after Tom Markus resigned to become city manager in Lawrence, Kan.

In a note to council members, Mayor Jim Throgmorton said a national search for a city manager could take about nine months and cost about $30,000.

Throgmorton said the next city manager should be an experienced, well-prepared person who is able to lead the city's staff. He declined to say how he plans to vote Wednesday.

After the City Council requested public input on the manager's position last month, it received dozens of messages from community members, mostly in support of Fruin. He received endorsements from the Iowa City Downtown District, Iowa City/Coralville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau President Josh Schamberger, Johnson County Supervisor Pat Harney and many city residents.

'My job here affords me the opportunity to work with a great many people in this community and, to this day, I have never come across a single person who has not appreciated Geoff's communication, follow-up and work ethic,” Schamberger wrote in an email.

Kim Nuxoll expressed a desire for a wider search: 'A national search will provide assurance for all involved that the chosen candidate is the best available fit for the job. Let's move forward with that confidence.”

'The public's views matter a great deal to me,” Throgmorton said. 'I take that all into account. But I also have four-and-a-half years of experience working with Geoff.”