Atwater calls another closed session meeting on next city manager

A closed-door meeting to discuss the search for the next Atwater city manager is set during a special meeting on Thursday.

The Atwater City Council called the special meeting for 6 p.m. Thursday at City Hall, 750 Bellevue Road. Though the bulk of the meeting is scheduled for closed session, the public will have the opportunity to speak about the city manager search.

The council interviewed two candidates during a special meeting earlier this month. Sources with knowledge of the hiring process confirmed the candidates were interim City Manager Scott McBride and former Ceres police Chief Art de Werk.

When the City Council will make a decision on the next city manager is unclear. The council did not take a vote during the closed session meeting earlier this month, according to city staffers.

The city manager position was left empty when Frank Pietro retired at the end of 2016.

McBride has been serving in the office since the first of the year. The council unanimously appointed McBride, who was Atwater’s community development director, as interim city manager in December.

De Werk, a former chief and public safety director in Ceres, was relieved of his duties in 2014 after 15 years. He was on medical leave for about two months beginning in April 2014 for treatment and surgery for a benign mass in his brain.

He returned to work on light duty in June of that year but went back on medical leave several days later, following two closed-door meetings to discuss his “discipline, dismissal or release.”

Whoever steps into the Atwater city manager job faces a difficult financial standing. Atwater has struggled in recent years, verging on bankruptcy in 2012, and is dealing with a $2.8 million general fund debt, among other unfunded obligations.

Council candidates said during the November election hiring a new top administrator was a priority.

This story was originally published April 26, 2017 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Atwater calls another closed session meeting on next city manager."