The candidates include:
• Greg Horwadel, deputy county administrator, Hillsborough County, Fla.
• Thomas Hutka, city manager, city of Port Huron, Mich.
• Sara Mills Klein, human resource director, city of Kettering, Ohio.
• James Palenick, city administrator, Racine, Wis.
On Monday and Tuesday, the candidates met remotely with a committee of community and business leaders as well as a committee of city staff. They forwarded their verbal and written feedback to the executive recruiting firm, Cincinnati-based Management Partners.
Council recently narrowed the field of 22 applicants to eight candidates. That field was narrowed to four candidates, who are being interviewed this weekend.
However, Acting City Manager Susan Cohen said the entire 22-person field remains in place and no one has received a rejection letter.
She said council will determine the next steps after they complete this rounds of interviews and if there will be any visits to the city by the candidates.
“We’re trying to get as much information as we can in this COVID-19 environment,” Cohen said.
She said the coronavirus pandemic has made it difficult to conduct interviews as has been done traditionally.
Management Partners is conducting the nationwide search, and applicants that included 19 men and three women are from as far away as California and as close as Butler County.
According to the recruitment brochure, the compensation package listed a salary range of $145,000 to $185,000 and a competitive fringe benefit offering. The brochure also noted that council “desires the next city manager to be a resident of the community and is prepared to offer relocation/moving assistance commensurate with a contractual obligation to fulfill such residency expectations.”
Cohen has been acting city manager since November, when Middletown City Council terminated former city manager Doug Adkins. At that time, the council said it no longer desired to employ Adkins as city manager “because of irreconcilable differences between Council and Mr. Adkins concerning leadership style, and these differences make his continued work as City Manager untenable.”
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