Is Merced rushing its search for a new city manager? Some critics question the process
.JPG "The Civic Center in Merced on 18th and N streets.")
On the cusp of the Nov. 3 election, Merced City Council candidates Monday night publicly took issue with the current council’s handling of city employee hiring practices.
Merced mayoral candidate Michael Belluomini and City Council District 1 hopeful Jesse Ornelas each voiced concerns about the “rush” to hire a city manager before new representation takes over the four positions up for grabs on the seven-seat council.
“It is a mistake, I urge you, don’t do it,” Belluomini said. “Extend the time frame to submit applications to the end of December and let the new City Council choose its city manager.”
Stephanie Dietz, who has been with the city since 2017, transitioned from assistant to interim city manager after former City Manager Steve Carrigan was terminated by a 6-1 City Council vote in July.
Carrigan had served as Merced’s lead administrator since 2016 with a starting salary of $190,000 plus benefits. No official reason for the termination was given, but disagreement between Carrigan and Mayor Mike Murphy became evident in June when the mayor alleged that the city manager lacked transparency and misappropriated power during the coronavirus emergency.
A Merced news release in July said the search for a permanent city manager was expected to kick off in fall.
Now that the search has begun, Belluomini and Ornelas criticized the process as overly hasty.
“I want to make sure the community has the best possible candidate for this position available to us,” Ornelas said.
Search mirrors past recruitment, mayor says
But Murphy told the Sun-Star that the hiring process has been thorough and consistent with past employee recruitment. Comments at the council meeting claiming otherwise were “disappointing” and came from an incomplete frame of reference, or were spurred by last-minute campaign efforts by prospective candidates, he said.
So far, Murphy said, the open application has yielded more than 15 candidates from within California to as far as the East Coast.
Murphy noted that the Merced’s police chief is currently an interim position, plus the city’s fire chief is leaving in January. Having a stable city manager to make those permanent position appointments is crucial, he said.
“(Dietz is) doing a very good job in that role, but we’ve opened up recruitment to allow for a broad set of applicants to come in and apply for the job,” Murphy said. “It’s important that we have a permanent city manager in that position.”
Both Belluomini and Ornelas stated that they have no issues with Dietz’s qualification as city manager, but insisted on a more meticulous hiring process. Ornelas asked council to delay and extend the application process, as well as utilize a professional search firm to locate qualified candidates.
As a majority of City Council representation changes hands, hiring a new city manager would be a good opportunity for fresh council members to build community relationships and foster a sense of uniformity, Ornelas said.
Belluomini noted the short application period, which opened about a week ago, closes on Nov. 4. Applicant interviews are anticipated to take place Nov. 10 and 12, according to the city manager position job posting.
Standard practice in Merced and other cities is a statewide applicant search over a period of two months, said Belluomini, who previously served on Merced City Council for five years until 2018.
“This rushed, somewhat stealthy approach to recruiting a new city manager is a disservice to the City of Merced,” Belluomini said. “We will not know if the most qualified candidates were able to apply to help lead our city unless we spend the time and effort to seek them out.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
