Cedar Rapids needs a city manager and Coralville's says he's happy in Coralville

CEDAR RAPIDS - With Cedar Rapids in need of a new city manager, one name that has surfaced in and around Cedar Rapids City Hall is that of Kelly Hayworth, the city administrator in Coralville.

A quick call to Hayworth on Wednesday found the 49 year old thinking about projects in Coralville and not having thought at all about the prospect of being the new city manager in Cedar Rapids.

“No, at this time, I'm very excited about continuing to be where I am,” Hayworth said. “I'm really happy where I'm at in Coralville.”

Interestingly, Hayworth and Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett shared the same stage earlier this year as the two featured speakers at a Downtown Rotary luncheon. The topic was flood recovery.

Hayworth, who has been city administrator in Coralville since 1988, noted on Wednesday that the city of Coralville has completed most of the buyouts of some 120 flood-damaged residential units, some of which were apartment units.

The city of Coralville has 130 or so full-time employees plus some part-time ones and a budget of about $45 million a year, he reported.

Cedar Rapids has the equivalent of some 1,400 full-time employees and a budget – including a giant special flood recovery budget – of some $750 million in the current year.

Corbett has suggested that the city conduct a search for a new city manager without an outside search firm while council member Kris Gulick has suggested that the city use a search firm as it did back in 2006 when the city hired Jim Prosser. Prosser resigned and left the city's employment on Tuesday as part of a “separation agreement” with a City Council majority.