Council narrows city administrator search

     The Monticello City Council held a closed session on Tuesday, Jan. 5. Led by Pat Callahan with Callahan Municipal Consultants LLC, the meeting consisted of seven candidate interviews via Zoom for the position of city administrator.

     At the end of the meeting, the council narrowed their search down to three semi-finalists, who will all be in Monticello Jan. 15-16. At that time, they will be given a tour of Monticello and spend a day taking part in several rounds of in-person closed interviews. On Jan. 18, the hope is to have the council approve one of three hires at that evening’s city council meeting.

     Callahan said they started with 23 total applicants, with candidates expressing interest from all over the U.S.

     “That’s better than normal,” he said of the applicant pool. “That’s what you expect to see. Sometimes it’s hard to get more than 12 candidates.”

     Callahan said it helps that Monticello is positioned on a four-lane highway, between two major cities, Cedar Rapids and Dubuque.

     “That’s a big plus,” he said of attracting candidates, as well as their spouses looking for employment.

     Callahan praised Monticello for having so many amenities and “good things going for” itself and the community.

     “There are so many things people here don’t even know about,” he said, following the completion of the Position Profile, a snapshot of the City of Monticello that went out to all interested candidates. “It was easy for me to sell the community.”

     During the Jan. 5 meeting, each candidate was given 25 minutes during the interview and Q&A session. The council members and Mayor Brian Wolken came with prepared questions to ask of the candidates. Those questions covered why the candidates chose to apply for the position, what three words they’d use to describe themselves, and their areas of expertise (human resources, economic development, street improvements, financial management, utility operations, etc.).

     “No two searches are exactly the same,” noted Callahan.

     Each of the top three candidates have city management experience.

     “Two of the candidates were city administrators in more than one city in their careers,” noted Callahan.

     In addition, he said they have “extensive experience in city government,” whether it was as a city planner or department head in a larger city.

     “They can hit the ground running,” he added. “They have the skills to do that.”

     He said each will be new to the Monticello community, and will no doubt have a lot to learn.

     Following the seven interviews, Callahan handed each council member a ballot with the candidates’ names on it. The idea was to rank each candidate from 1 to 7. Callahan then scored each candidate, which narrowed it down to those top three.

     “This way everyone (of the council members) had equal say in the process,” explained Callahan. “We go by the numbers (composite score).”

     Following the in-person interviews on Jan. 16, Callahan will facilitate a final review session at the end of the day, bringing the various interviewers together to compare notes.

     The goal is to stay on task and have someone hired as the Monticello City Administrator sooner rather than later, urged Callahan.