STUART — City commissioners on Dec. 8 opened their first public discussion on how to move forward with hiring a new city manager, several weeks after a split vote ousted former manager Mike Mortell.
City Attorney Lee Baggett began the conversation by formally acknowledging who is leading the city in the interim.
“As you recall, on Oct. 27, the city commission appointed Mr. Boglioli, who is the director of finance department, as the interim city manager,” Baggett said. “The interim city manager at this point will continue to perform his regular duties in addition to taking on the duties as city manager.”
Interim City Manager and Finance Director Louis Boglioli walked commissioners through the options available to conduct the search, including whether to keep the process in-house or broaden it. He noted that human resources staff managed the previous recruitment.
“What we’ve prepared in the packet here is the options that you can shop from, including advertising internally [and] advertising externally,” he said. “If you trusted the staff to do that again, that would certainly save us the money of not doing a headhunter.”
He also pointed out that the timeline he drafted moves quickly.
“It’s a pretty tight schedule, but basically you make some decisions tonight, we begin advertising, put it out there, we receive applications wherever they originate from, we review those applications with a committee that is selected, and then schedule interviews,” Boglioli said. “Hopefully… I would not be the interim city manager by March 23.”
Commissioner Eula Clark said she favors promoting from within and made clear she views the interim as an example of the internal talent available.
“I’d like to discuss staying in-house,” Clark said. “If I’m saying staying in-house, I’m saying promoting from within, like promoting our interim to be our city manager.”
Boglioli quickly rejected the idea of pursuing the job permanently.
“I’m not on the table, I’m not on the menu for this,” he said.
He explained that internal applicants would still receive an early window to apply.
“We advertise internally for seven days… allowing internal applicants to apply for those jobs,” he said. “After it’s been in for seven days… then we go and advertise out.”
Commissioners agreed to hold off on finalizing the search plan until their first meeting in January, when they can set a salary range and resolve other outstanding decisions. Boglioli said advertising could begin almost immediately once the commission signs off.
“Monday night, you like it, you adopt it, Tuesday morning it goes out,” he said.
Clark noted that once applications come in, a staff review committee will narrow the field before community members have a chance to listen to finalists.
“Staff committee peers down the 100 applications to six or seven… and then when we have those three or four, we appoint a set of people from the community to sit here and just listen to them,” she said.
Commissioner Campbell Rich added that he already expects interest from applicants. If the current outline holds, the city could potentially select its next city manager as early as April.