By Kim McDarison
The Whitewater Common Council, during a special meeting held Tuesday, hired GovHR, a professional recruitment firm, to conduct a search for a new city manager.
Services provided by the firm, as outlined in its proposal, will come at a cost of $23,500, excluding consultant travel expenses.
A second firm, Public Administration Associates (PAA), offered services to the city at a cost of $14,800.
Additionally, council approved the scheduling of a closed session meeting to take place July 19, which also is the date of the next regularly scheduled council meeting, during which time options for hiring an interim city manager will be discussed with representatives from GovHR.
During its previously held meetings, council discussed the likelihood that the services of an interim city manager would be needed to help guide city operations while the search for a new city manager was underway.
City Manager Cameron Clapper has previously announced that his last day of employment with the city will be Aug. 12. Clapper is leaving his position to serve as the county administrator in Dodge County.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Clapper said that after receiving instructions from the city council during its last meeting, held June 21, he and members of city staff sought to provide quotes from three recruitment firms to bring before council at the special meeting.
Clapper said that of the three entities approached by the city for information, two, GovHR and PAA, provided quotes, including a written presentation of services and their associated costs.
A third organization, MRA — which, according to its website, is a nonprofit employer association, of which, Clapper said, the city is a member — informed the city by email that it could take between four and six weeks before the organization could begin to provide the services requested by the city.
The delay, Clapper said, prompted city staff to remove the organization from consideration.
Clapper told council members that both companies, GovHR and PAA are “well established with years of experience and a solid reputation for being effective and capable as well as good to work with.”
Looking at the cost differential between the two quotes, Clapper said that the quote from PAA excluded such services as aptitude/psychological tests, emotional intelligence assessments and post‐offer background checks and/or interview visits to the candidate’s community of residence.
The price included consultant expenses, he said.
“These are somewhat difficult to compare as they’re certainly not apples to apples,” Councilman Jim Allen said referencing the two proposals.
“It is easy to look at one and say, ‘well, it’s a lot cheaper,’” Allen said.
Participating in the meeting through Zoom, Councilwoman Brienne Brown, asked if council members wanted to consider bringing representatives from each firm to a council meeting, allowing the opportunity to learn more about each proposal and ask questions.
“I would ask my colleague … to reconsider. Just for the timeline,” Allen said.
“You know Cameron leaves on Aug. 12. I just don’t want to extend it any longer,” he said.
Councilwoman Jill Gerber, also attending the meeting through Zoom, said she favored the GovHR proposal.
“I know it’s more expensive, but I do like the candidate evaluation. It looks like they’re doing a lot more evaluation and screening, social media checks and stuff like that before it gets down to the final interviews. Then it looks like it comes back to us. I think they are providing more services and pre-screening and background,” she said.
Allen said he agreed with Gerber. He added: “I would like to reach out to them to see if they can cut this down to less than 12 weeks,” he said.
Gerber said she was not against the 14-week timeline as proposed by the firm if the outcome would bring “the right candidate.
“I don’t want to rush something as important as the city manager position,” she said.
Six-phased proposal
Within its 16-page proposal, GovHR stated it would accomplish the task of finding a new city manager in six phases.
Phase 1, the document noted, would include position assessment, position announcement and a brochure. The phase would further include one-on-one or group interviews with stakeholders identified by the client, and suggested that surveys could be used to gather feedback. The process would also include conversations and interviews with department heads.
According to the document, a position announcement could be placed on websites and social media.
The company also would develop a detailed recruitment timetable, which, the proposal stated, typically takes between 90 and 120 days.
In Phase 2, a focus would be placed on advertising, candidate recruitment and outreach, which the document noted, would include GovHR consultants personally identifying and contacting potential candidates, and developing a database of potential candidates from across the country, while focusing on leadership and management skills, size of the organization, and experience in addressing challenges and opportunities.
The database will range from several hundred to thousands of names and an email blast will be sent to each candidate, the document stated.
Also in Phase 2, a position announcement would be placed in public sector publications and websites. The document noted approximately 20 such sources in which the placements could occur.
Further, it stated that some 20,000 connections were available through social media.
A list of advertising options will be presented to the council for approval, the document stated.
Phase 3 of the process will include a review and evaluation of the candidates’ credentials. Candidates will next be narrowed down to those who meet the qualifications. Candidates will undergo an evaluation process, which includes: completion of a questionnaire about prior work experiences, and a video interview lasting between 45 minutes and an hour.
Candidates will be asked to provide references which will be contacted and a social media and internet search will be conducted on each of the final candidates.
In Phase 4, the following steps will take place: GovHR will prepare a recruitment report presenting the credentials of the most qualified candidates, GovHR will provide an electronic recruitment portfolio containing a “mini resume” for each candidate, the client will receive a log of all applicants and may review resumes if requested, and the report will arrive in advance of the recruitment report presentation, the document noted.
Phase 5, which includes the interviewing process and background screenings, will focus on the development of a first and second round of interview questions, the coordination of travel and other accommodations for the candidates, and GovHR will provide the client with an electronic file that includes the candidates’ credentials, a set of questions with room for note-taking, and an evaluation sheet to assist the interviewers, according to the document.
GovHR will also coordinate a two-step interview process.
According to the document, the first round will include four or five candidates, and a second round will include two or three candidates.
Along with the structured interviews, GovHR will facilitate tours of the client’s facilities and interviews with senior staff.
In Phase 6 of the process, titled: Appointment of Candidate, GovHR will assist the client as much as the client requests with salary and benefit negotiations, and drafting an employment agreement.
GovHR also will notify all the applicants of the final appointment, the document stated.
A project timeline provided in the document shows Phase 1 completed in two weeks, Phase 2 completed in the following four weeks, Phase 3 completed in the next three weeks, Phase 4 will complete in one week, and phases 5 and 6 each complete in two weeks, respectively, with the full process completing in 14 weeks.
Looking at costs, a breakdown is as follows: recruitment fee, $19,500; recruitment expenses, not to exceed $1,500, and advertising costs of $2,500 are included in the quote.
If advertising costs should exceed the $2,500, the document states, the costs would need to be approved by the client.
The chart above shows a timeline of 14 weeks required to complete a city manager search as proposed by GovHR, the firm hired Tuesday by the Whitewater Common Council to conduct the search.
The chart above shows the costs associated with the city manager recruitment timeline as proposed by GovHR. The full 14-week recruitment process comes at a cost of $23,500.
Whitewater City Attorney Wallace McDonell, from left, City Manager Cameron Clapper, and Common Council President Lisa Dawsey Smith look through proposals and associated quotes from two firms under consideration Tuesday to conduct a search for a new city manager. During the special meeting, GovHR was approved by the council to receive the project. Kim McDarison photo.
This post has already been read 1219 times!
