City Manager

Update 4/19/2024

The City Council formally adopted the city manager agreement at their meeting on April 8, 2024.  We now have a fully executed agreement and Mr. Morris has indicated that his first day as our new manager will be May 28, 2024.

Update: 3/27/24

City Council offered the City Manager position to Charles (Chad) Morris.  Chad has been with the City of Niceville, Florida, since 2001. He has been serving the city in a number of roles, including Director of Information Systems since 2001, Director of Purchasing since 2009, Project Manager of Special Projects since 2012, and he was named Deputy City Manager in February 2023. Mr. Morris has a Master of Public Administration degree from Troy University and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting from the University of West Florida.

Contract negotiations are taking place and we are projecting to have the contract finalized to be considered at the City Council meeting on April 8th for adoption.  No start date has been set. 

UPDATE 3/15/24 -

Staff has been given the green light to release additional information on the City Manager candidates.

Ben Burgener: Currently serving as City Manager of Stansfield, OR – population 2,500 (since 2019). Additional service as City Administrator of Ada, Minnesota and short term positions with Utah State Department of Transportation and private sector firms.

Chad Morris: Currently in his 22nd year with the City of Niceville, Florida (population 16,000) with increasing responsibilities: Currently Deputy City Manager (since 2023), and Director of Purchasing (current-since 2009) and Director of Information Systems (current-since 2001)

Aaron Palmquist: Currently City Manager, Irrigon, OR – population 2,100, (Since 2013); Operations & Quality Manager, City Administrator/Recorder, City of Monroe, Or (2000-2004); other positions with Salem, Or, Springfield, Or and Prineville, Or. Military deployments 2011-2012 and 2004-2005

Sandra Patterson: 11 years as City Administrator/Recorder/Land Use Planner/ Elections Officer - City of Union, OR. – population 2,350 (2006-2017). Additional service in Joseph, OR (Interim City Manager 10 months), La Grande, OR (Recorder/Elections Officer 1+ year) and with Union County Chamber of Commerce & Tourism (2 years as Office Manager/Public Relations)

UDDATE 3/14/24 -

INTERVIEWS SET FOR CITY MANAGER POSITION

There will be four candidates interviewing for the City Manager position on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 (in no specific order)

Chad Morris

Ben Burgener

Aaron Palmquist

Sandra Patterson

City Manager Recruitment -

Update 2/27/24 - The City Council voted to interview four candidates with one alternate at their Special Meeting on February 26, 2024.  There will be a meet and greet for citizens to meet the candidates on March 25, 2024 from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. at the Community Building.  Interviews will be the next day, March 26, 2024.  As more information becomes available it will be released.

Update: 2/22/24 - Prothman, the recruiting agency that was contracted for the City Manager recruitment has reported that there were 17 applications received by the February 4th deadline.  Prothman has performed their intial screening to narrow down those applicants that meet the criteria set by the council and citizens.  The next step will be for the City Council to decide on how many candidates they wish to invite for a formal interview.  A public meet and greet will be scheduled the evening before interviews (when that date has been established it will be announced) for the public to come and meet the perspective candidates.    
 

Update: 12/11/2023 - Prothman, the recruiting agency that was contracted, posted the City Manager profile yesterday (December 10, 2023) on their website. The application deadline is February 4, 2024. All information is on the Prothman website at www.prothman.com If you have questions about the profile you can contact Cliff Moore at cliffmoore74@comcast.net

The City Manager Profile is at the bottom of the page.

City Manager Update:

After 30+ years of dedicated service, City Manager Linda Hall has decided to retire.  Below is an update on the recruitment for the next City Manager. 

The Council has contracted with Prothman, a professional recruiting agency headquartered in Issaquah, Washington.

On November 8 and 9 the City hosted open meetings for anyone and everyone to offer their input on what qualities and qualifications they wanted to see in a city manager. Cliff Moore, the representative from Prothman who is leading this recruitment took notes from all the input offered at these meetings to compile a position profile. This profile will be used to develop a recruitment flyer that will be circulated nationwide to over 7,000 intended targets. The profile will then be posted on the Prothman website the week of December 11th.

The position advertising and active recruitment by Prothman staff will begin in earnest January 2nd. The decision was made to delay that heavy push and recruitment outreach until after the holidays in order to give the City its best chance at recruiting the very most qualified candidates. Their experience indicates that advertising vacant positions is not as successful over the holidays. Most people are concentrating on spending time with friends and family, not looking for jobs.

January 10th will begin the direct mailing of the position announcement and profile to a massive target of potential candidates.

The deadline for the applicants to apply will be February 4th, with Prothman screening the applications the weeks of February 5th and 12th.

Prothman will then share the top candidates with the Council the Week of February 20th and dates will be set for interviews.

Interviews will likely be held in March, with an intended start date of your new Manager being sometime in April.

Comments can be submitted for the recruitment at cmrecruitment@milton-freewater-or.gov