Cedar Rapids search for a city manager not the model for others

CEDAR RAPIDS - Jeff Pomeranz likely would not be heading to Cedar Rapids' as its new city manager if one Iowa city didn't believe strongly in conducting a broad, national search to fill its top executive position.

“That's what we did 12 years ago when we hired Jeff,” says West Des Moines Mayor Steven Gaer. “And, of course, we found him in Port Angeles, Wash., so that's about as far away as you can get.”

Gaer reports that the West Des Moines City Council is launching a new national search now to replace Pomeranz, 52, who last week said he had accepted an offer from Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett and the Cedar Rapids City Council to become Cedar Rapids' next city manager.

However, unlike the West Des Moines council and unlike the Cedar Rapids council in 2006 when it hired Pomeranz's predecessor, Jim Prosser, the current Cedar Rapids council has hand-picked Pomeranz. It didn't use a search firm, didn't formally advertise for the job and didn't take resumes, all facts about which Corbett has taken some questions since his news conference Wednesday morning introducing Pomeranz to Cedar Rapids.

West Des Moines' Gaer says he doesn't know what Corbett and his council colleagues are thinking.

“Alls I can say is that they've got one of the best city managers in the country. … They got a great guy,” Gaer says.

Cedar Rapids City Council member Monica Vernon, who is chairwoman of the council's Personnel Committee that led the hunt for a new city manager, says, “The proof is in the pudding.”

“We got the right guy,” adds council member Chuck Swore, also on the Personnel Committee.

The naming of Pomeranz as city manager, in truth, should not have come as a Cedar Rapids surprise.

From the moment they signed a “separation agreement” with Prosser on April 13, Corbett and a strong majority of the council said they would work hard to find a new city manager from a select group of current city managers in a select group of Iowa's most successful cities. Mike Van Milligan in Dubuque, Kelly Hayworth in Coralville, and, as we now know, Pomeranz in West Des Moines were in that tiny crowd.

In May, the Personnel Committee toyed with hiring a search firm when it didn't look like recruiting would work. But, in the end, the approach worked.

Even so, it is easy to find others doing things differently.

West Des Moines' Gael says the West Des Moines council never thought twice about using what is the commonplace approach for larger cities, hiring a search firm to help identify and attract candidates.

“Our thought is that we want to cast a broad a net as we can to make sure we get our message out to make sure we have a chance to hear from as many potential good candidates as we can possibly get,” Gael says.

It's no different in Iowa City. Iowa City Mayor Matt Hayek says the city of Iowa City continues to work with a search firm to permanently fill its city manager post. “Countless” cities, universities and other entities use search firms to “maximize” the candidate pool and conduct backgrounds and references, he says.

“An established search firm knows the industry and can identify city managers who might be a good match for the city, including those who may not be actively looking for new employment,” Hayek says.

That's the approach the city of Des Moines also has used.

Tom Turner, the city of Des Moines' director of human resources, has spent time in both the private sector and public sector and he says it's not atypical in the private sector for a firm to go directly after a particular talent to fill a high-level post. In the public sector, though, the hiring approach is usually not so direct, he says.

“In the public sector, there is a little more process required, and I had to learn that. Process is King,” Turner says.

Turner points out that some members of the Des Moines City Council also were interested in at least one successful city manager in the state of Iowa back in 2006 when it was looking to hire a new city manager.

However, he says the council had its search firm reach out to that person and encourage him to apply. He didn't. The Des Moines council ended up altering its search when Rick Clark, the deputy city manager, decided to compete. Three finalists met the public and were interviewed at a public session, with Clark getting the job, Turner reports.

“We try to be as open and transparent as we can on these high-level hiring matters … so people get a chance to see what's going on and don't feel it's a backroom deal,” he says.

Alan Kemp, executive director of the Iowa League of Cities, says it is “very common” for larger cities in Iowa to use search firms, and for a couple of reasons. It creates a hiring process, which provides an intrinsic benefit just by fulfilling the process. And secondly, the search firm helps with recruitment.

At the same time, he says a city like Cedar Rapids has its own capable human resources department, and so it can handle the hiring of a city manager on its own. He says a city can go out and recruit one person or multiple people to see if they're interested in a position. “A city may feel that's the best approach,” he says.

As for Cedar Rapids, Kemp calls the city “unique” at this point in time because it has endured two “seminal events” within the last four-and-half years. Firstly, in 2006, the city launched ts new council/manager form of government after a century with a commission government. Then in 2008, the city got hit with a flood disaster from which it continues to recover.

“And the fact that the city is in a sense still trying to get its feet under it - and it should be considering the amount of damage - Cedar Rapids may have decided, ‘We know some people that we would really like to have as a city manager,'” Kemp says. “'And in order to get this done quickly, we're going to go that recruitment route.' Time will eventually tell if that was correct. But, I don't think it's unreasonable given Cedar Rapids' circumstances.”

He ventures, too, that the mayor and City Council knew full well that they were apt to hear some criticism in foregoing a slower, far-ranging hiring process.

“I don't think they made the choice without knowing that they would ruffle some feathers because it's not a conventional process,” Kemp says. “ … They made a calculated decision. ‘We'll do it this way and deal with the criticism.'”

Kathleen Richardson, executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and director of the Drake University School of Journalism and Mass Communications, says a community misses out on public feedback when a hiring process is “too secret.” At the same time, a more open process might bring to light “possible negative things” about an applicant that otherwise might not be known, she says.

She says the Cedar Rapids City Council is not “technically” violating the state open-meetings law if a majority of the council hasn't met secretly without public notice to discuss and decide matters. Even so, insisting on an open process provides the public with a chance to listen to the thinking of the decision-makers, not just to hear the result of the decision. An open process is good for applicants, too, she argues. “They get off on the right foot with people in the community if people have a chance to interact with them and get to know more about them.”

Even so, Richardson says hiring a search firm and bringing finalists to the community for an important public post is not and has not been a guarantee that the hiring process is visible to the public. She says there have been instances in the recent past in Iowa in which full-blown searches and interviews have taken place for school superintendents and other positions with the public only getting a first glimpse of anything at the time someone is hired.

The guide, Richardson says, should be as “much transparency as possible” when hiring for such important public positions.

“At least what they owe the public is to bring the (job candidates) to town and to do it in a forum that's public enough so the community gets a chance to look at them and get the measure of them,” she says.