'Quiet' Search for Mr. or Ms. Right Ends. Call in the Pros

So Cedar Rapids' swift, initial search for a "regional" City Manager match-made-in-heaven is apparently over.

Rick Smith had fine coverage of Monday's City Council personnel committee meeting. Front page in that dead-tree Gazette, even.

I was on hand also. Scribbling quietly in the corner.

Hopes for making a quick, post-Prosser rebound connection have faded. None of the regional/Iowa/local possibilities wanted the CR city manager gig, evidently. Hopes for a local business star to ride in and grab the reins didn't work out, at least for now.

"I know the mayor has called and chatted with a number of people," said Council member Monica Vernon, the committee chair. She conceded that those ovetures, to what she called "brand-name people," were not successful. She didn't say why we weren't brand-name material.

Now it's time to call in the search firms. Maybe match.com?

For the council's designated searchers, the wind seems to have gone out of their sails.

Last week, the personnel committee was swashbuckling through the next manager's job profile, slicing chunks out his or her authority, while slapping in phrases such as "with advice and consent of the council." The next manager was going to know, clearly, who is in charge. 

Five seasons. Nine bosses. Apply within.

But this week, the committee backed away. City Attorney Jim Flitz pointed out that all the snipping and clipping and advising and consenting might not be cool when it comes to the voter-ratified charter.

Oh, yeah, the charter, with all that "shall" this and "shall" that. Lawyers ruin all the fun.

Last week, it was council-bossing "spoon feeders" be damned.

This week...

"I think we have to be really careful not to do anything...I mean, we have a charter," Vernon said, insisting it was never the committee's intent to restrict or supervise too much.

That's smart, of course. And so is hiring a search firm that knows what it's doing. Sensible. Boring. But again, sensible.

It's an important job. Not just anyone can do it. Searching for qualified candidates, wherever they might be, is how it's done. Swashbuckling is more fun to watch, but it's no way to pick a manager.

Still, just because a search firm will be on the job doesn't mean the notion of hiring someone local goes away. Buy local, hire local, understand local are core principles for Mayor Ron Corbett and his squad. I don''t think they're giving them up, even if they couldn't make a quick, flashy hire.

It could be a while, however, before the search yields much to blog home about. I'll have to shelve "swashbuckling" and dust off "patient."