Eau Claire will start looking at city manager candidates next month

Dec. 3—EAU CLAIRE — Eau Claire's elected leaders anticipate reviewing candidates who apply for the city's top job next month.

A committee of five City Council members overseeing the city manager recruitment process met Thursday evening — their final gathering of 2021.

After the application window closes at the end of this month, the executive search firm hired by the city, Washington, D.C.-based Polihire, will provide a pool of potential candidates to the city's recruitment committee.

Catherine Emmanuelle, chairwoman of the committee, said the number of candidates presented in early January will determine the next step.

"We'll have to let that play out organically as we learn," she said.

Emmanuelle did voice optimism that council members will start speaking with manager hopefuls in late January.

"It's possible we could start interviews on Jan. 31 or the week thereof," she said.

Kenyatta Uzzell, president and CEO of Polihire, spoke to the committee via videoconference on Thursday to offer advice and a general idea on how the search is going.

"I think we're making steady progress, making quite a few contacts," he said.

About a couple dozen people had expressed interest already, Uzzell said, and Polihire is seeking out more people who might be a good fit for the Eau Claire job.

"The best candidates we're going to identify for you (are) those not currently seeking new opportunities," he said.

Council President Terry Weld, who serves on the recruitment committee, asked Uzzell about the current market for top public sector employees.

"There are searches opening every day," Uzzell said. "It's probably one of the busiest times I've seen in 20 years of experience."

There are a lot of people changing jobs in the public sector, Uzzell said, but he didn't view that competition or the timing of the search as negatives for Eau Claire.

"I would not fear that the holiday or what the market looks like will impact your candidate pool," Uzzell told the recruitment committee.

The city first learned it would be in the market for a new leader in February 2020 when then-City Manager Dale Peters announced he would be retiring. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Peters decided to stay in the job longer than initially planned, but finally retired in October 2020.

City leaders did search for a new manager in 2020 with the help of firm Baker Tilly. That came to an end this February when the city's top choice opted to take a job elsewhere, prompting the council to pause its search and then start over again this summer.

Uzzell said he knows how the previous search ended and wants to make sure that doesn't happen again.

Emmanuelle remarked that a positive of already going through the recruitment process before is that some of the materials and methods used to evaluate candidates can be brought back.

"I think the gift we have is a process we used recently, which worked pretty well," she said.

Councilwoman Emily Anderson has suggested one change in city panels used to interview candidates. This time, Anderson wants the panel of community members to include youths in addition to adults.

Uzzell said that including both youths and senior citizens on question-and-answer panels for other searches he's been involved in was received well by would-be hires.

"It really garnered the candidates appreciating it in terms of the diversity of the community," Uzzell said, adding his support for Anderson's idea.