Fort hires recruiting firm for fire chief search

By Ryan Whisner

The Fort Atkinson City Council on July 6 approved a contract with an Illinois-based recruitment firm to assist in attracting candidates to fill the role of fire chief.

For $26,000, GovHR USA, of Northbrook, Ill., was retained to assist the city in filling the role vacated by recently retired Fire Chief Daryl Rausch.

Rausch ended his service as Fort Atkinson’s fire chief on June 23. Division Chief Mike Lawrence was appointed by the city’s Police and Fire Commission (PFC) to serve as interim chief during the search process, which is expected to take three to four months.

An additional $8,500 was authorized as part of the contract to retain the option of adding an “assessment center,” defined as a more in-depth interview process, if needed.

“Essentially, even though this proposal was more expensive than the others, it was the feeling of the PFC that this was the best fit for what we needed to accomplish in this hiring process,” council member Mason Becker said in advance of the council’s vote to approve the measure.

GovHR was unanimously approved by the council after Fort Atkinson City Manager Rebecca Houseman reviewed the process undertaken by the Police and Fire Commission before making its recommendation.

One of the primary reasons a recruiting firm is being sought is simply that the city doesn’t have human resources staff for this type of search process, Houseman said 

“We do not have the capacity internally to run a recruitment of this nature,” she noted. “(City Clerk) Michelle Ebbert and I are the HR team. We have no individuals dedicated to any sort of HR aside from us so that is why we requested to submit a request for proposals and receive proposals for this recruitment process.”

In addition, the job description the city currently has for the role of fire chief needs to be updated to include references to the role of emergency management director and any additional duties associated with the EMS side of the service within the joint fire and EMS department, Houseman said.  

“We do not have a competitive wage survey for this fire chief position compared to other communities; we would be looking for assistance in re-crafting the job description as well as putting it at a point that both fits within our compensation structure as well as something that would be competitive externally,” Houseman added.

Not knowing there was going to be a recruitment process in 2023, there were no specific funds in the city’s 2023 budget, she said. 

In a review of the budget, Houseman identified a couple of different funding sources that could be used to pay for the service. 

Taking into consideration six months of the fire chief salary account not being expended due to Rausch’s departure, and subtracting out funds to support the interim chief for that same six months, she said there would be approximately $40,000 in that account available to cover the contract.

Five firms submitted proposals to the city after the Police and Fire Commission authorized the issuance of requests for proposals in early June. 

Submitted proposals came from: McMahon of Neenah, Wis.; McGrath Consulting Group of Waukesha, Wis. (based in Tenn.); GovHR of Northbrook Ill.; CPS HR Consulting of Sacramento, Calif.; and Angels Recruiting Agency, of Victorville, Calif.

Based on reference checks conducted by Houseman, McGrath, and GovHR stood out among the five potential firms. Each garnered positive comments from communities in Wisconsin that have used their services in the past, Houseman stated. 

In addition, each member of the Police and Fire Commission individually identified both McGrath and GovHR as their top two contenders based on Houseman’s reference checks and the overall strength of the company’s respective proposal presentations. 

Specifically, members cited GovHR’s proposal as being the most comprehensive for honing in on the 175-hour process and identifying challenges in such a search process and how they would overcome them.

“The firm’s approach is very thorough, including position assessment, which we do need to update our job description and review the salary range for that position,” the city manager noted. “This firm (GovHR) exclusively recruits for the public sector and has a vast network of potential candidates through Wisconsin and the Midwest.”

Also, Houseman pointed out that the recruiter that the city would be working with is a former fire chief and has vast experience recruiting in Wisconsin for fire departments of various sizes and complexities. 

The city manager said she ruled out two other firms, CPS HR Consulting and Angels Recruiting. Houseman said CPS HR did not have recruitment experience in Wisconsin and Angels Recruiting did not have experience with recruiting fire chiefs.

Overall, Houseman informed the council that the Police and Fire Commission was very thorough in its discussion at its June 27 meeting. 

The discussion at that meeting included a debate on whether hiring a recruiting firm was even necessary.

At the meeting, commission member Dick Schultz cited his prior experience on the Police and Fire Commission when the city hired retired Chief Tony Brus.

“I’m pretty sure we did not use an agency, we just advertised and reviewed the candidates,” he said. 

Subsequently, Schultz said he was on the city council when the city hired the city’s Police Chief Adrian Bump, and again, he said, he did not recall using a consultant.

Citing his understanding of a process used by Bump to find recruits for the police department, Schultz wondered whether advertising within a professional magazine for firefighters might not bring about a useful result. The city could then review the candidates and avoid paying for a recruiter, he said. In addition, he asked if there were any likely internal candidates.

According to Houseman, Lawrence has indicated an intention to apply. Outside of that, having not advertised the position, she didn’t know directly of any other internal candidates that are interested in applying.

“For me, that begs the question then, do we need to go through this process?” Schultz asked. He indicated that an internal candidate might provide a clear choice. 

Former council member and commission member Megan Hartwick challenged the assertion, saying: “I don’t think we have a clear choice if you don’t go through that process.”

She suggested that the city would be well advised to avoid setting a precedent of forgoing a search process if an internal candidate applied, especially, she added, when considering a leader for a department with the types of responsibilities associated with fire and rescue.  

Commission member Jeanne Delacruz-Raub also expressed a desire to look at options.

While supportive of using a consulting firm, Hartwick said she was surprised by the cost and the amount of staff time that would still need to be committed to the process.  

Houseman said that she, along with members of the Police and Fire Commission, would be included as members of the city’s hiring team. It is ultimately the panel’s role to hire the new chief, she said. 

“So as far as staff time, I don’t know the difference between staff time in me running the whole process or having a consultant run it and me being a part of it,” the city manager admitted. “It’s likely the latter is less staff time, but there would be city staff time. We want to make sure to make the right decision, and that would involve additional people. It’s inconvenient to fill these roles, but we must do it.”

Commission chairperson Philip Jones noted that in that instance, Houseman’s role is simply part of the job.

Returning to Schultz’s point of whether a recruiter or consultant should be hired, commission member Russ Turk pointed out that the city has made a significant commitment to the fire department and the depth of what it should now look like.

In April 2022, voters approved a public safety referendum, increasing revenues to allow the city to hire 12 additional firefighters with emergency medical training to provide full-time 24/7 911 emergency medical and firefighting services.

“With that in place, I think we want to make sure that the individuals that we’re looking at are going to be of quality to be able to do that,” Turk said.

He added that he believed the commission had the commitment to the citizens of Fort Atkinson to do a good job.

“We’re not going to have a guarantee, but we have a good backdrop here,” he said. “We might, quite frankly, have a good candidate here in play. Let’s find that out.”

He pointed out that the funds would have been expended on salaries anyway. 

“My thought is, is let’s pick the best consultant that we can to help guide us through this because it’s a wash as far as money goes,” he added.

Jones noted that the commission can and should support the city because 170 man hours is a lot of time.

“It would take us probably double that, given that we’re not experts in this process,” he said. “In the end, we want to hire the best candidate for the community.”