Following two days of closed session interviews last week with four finalists vying for the position of Savannah City Manager, council hopes to narrow the field to three candidates within the next seven to 10 days. Those three finalists will likely make a visit to Savannah toward the end of the month.
"I’m thoroughly pleased with what we have and I think that easily we can consider one of these folks to be our city manager," Mayor Van Johnson told the Savannah Morning News last week.
Johnson said the search process, which is the second one taken on by the current council, has been smoother and more efficient than the initial search last year.
The current search began earlier this year after council approved a $23,500 contract with Development Associates. Council approved a timeline for the search process soon after approving the contract.
"This firm had a much more comprehensive approach to include assessment centers and getting us more insight into the candidates than we had previously," Johnson said.
The first search was conducted by California-based recruiting firm Ralph Andersen and Associates at a cost of $35,000. The search was tossed after council failed to come to a consensus on the finalists.
One similarity between the searches will be public input. Like in the initial search, the current finalists are tentatively expected to visit Savannah and meet with community leaders and members of the public at the end of the month.
With a council that is often split in a 5-4 vote, Johnson noted that the group doesn’t always see eye to eye, but said the process of getting down to the group of finalists has been much less contentious than last time.
“It's been different because we employed a different approach that allows a more objective way of determining who it is that a council member has a preference on, we've basically forced ranked for the entire process,” he said.
While initially concerned because there weren’t as many applications as last time, Johnson said the pool is solid and includes some good public servants.
“Our city has been without leadership for quite some time, leadership in terms of stable leadership. We've had some great interims which a city like Savannah needed at the time,” he said, during his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
The new hire will take over for Michael Brown, who has been in the role since last fall following the retirement of Pat Monahan.
Monahan, a longtime Chatham County administrator, was brought on shortly after former City Manager Rob Hernandez announced his resignation in 2019. Monahan served more than a year before retiring last fall in the wake of the failed initial search.
Brown previously served in Savannah’s city government for 24 years, 15 of those as city manager. He left Savannah to be the county manager of Arlington, Virginia, in 2010.
Not having a consistent city manager during his term has absolutely impacted his job, Johnson said. Officials have been hesitant when it comes to long-term planning and personnel changes since such changes could impact the visions and goals of the new permanent hire, he said.
Johnson said one of his goals for the new hire is someone who truly gets Savannah from tourism, military and homelessness to social justice and affordable housing.
“I want someone who can sit in city hall, but then someone who can walk out with the chief and I in housing developments late at night, just to see what our city looks like,” Johnson said.
“I want someone who understands very clearly, I want to see a night-time city government, because our city is different at night than it is during the day.”
Katie Nussbaum is the city and county government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Contact her at knussbaum@savannahnow.com. Twitter: KmartSMN
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Three finalists for Savannah City Manager will be announced in the coming days
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