Camas narrows city administrator candidate field

A pool of 17 candidates for Camas city administrator is currently being narrowed to a field of three who will be interviewed next week.

Higgins announced earlier this month that an expedited recruitment process that will make use of the results from the city administrator selection process completed within the past year would be used. This time around, the recruitment is being completed internally with assistance from Waldron, a regional human resources consulting firm that completed the city’s previous city administrator recruitment.

The application deadline was Friday, Nov. 15. Finalists will be interviewed by a selection committee on the morning of Thursday, Dec. 5. Higgins will then interview the committee’s top two choices and make a final selection.

“I feel very good,” Higgins said of the candidates. “I feel we are going to get a good city administrator. It’s a real solid pool, any one of them would be great.”

Consultants from Waldron will review the qualifications of the finalists and complete background and reference checks.

The goal is to have a new city administrator begin working in early January 2014.

The salary range for the city administrator position is $113,500 to $135,600, plus benefits. The city of 20,200 people is served by approximately 175 full time equivalent city employees.Currently, portions of the city administrator duties are being handled by Human Resources Director Jennifer Gorsuch, as well as Higgins. In addition, Ridgefield based consultant Paul Lewis has been hired on a temporary basis to assist the city with duties including bringing the consolidation of the Camas-Washougal fire departments to a conclusion, assisting with union contract negotiations and working on the 2014 budget.

Higgins said he is anxious to hire a person to fill the city administrator position, which has been vacant since Nina Regor took emergency medical leave on Sept. 17 and later died unexpectedly from an ongoing health condition on Oct. 6. She had been the Camas City Administrator since January.

“Everyone is having to work a little harder than they want to or can really keep up with,” Higgins said of this transition time. “We have three people filling in for one position and everyone is doing this work on top of their regular jobs as well. I am exhausted, We are ready for a new city administrator.”