Cleveland City Council to interview five city manager candidates in June

PHOTO BY PAUL LEACH Cleveland Vice Mayor George Poe talks with Assistant City Manager Melinda Carroll between meetings. The City Council appointed Carroll to serve as interim city manager, effective June 1, for up to 90 days.
PHOTO BY PAUL LEACH Cleveland Vice Mayor George Poe talks with Assistant City Manager Melinda Carroll between meetings. The City Council appointed Carroll to serve as interim city manager, effective June 1, for up to 90 days.
photo PHOTO BY PAUL LEACH Consultant Larry Wallace addresses the Cleveland City Council concerning the progress of background checks of the final five candidates for Cleveland's next city manager.
photo PHOTO BY PAUL LEACH Cleveland City Manager Janice Casteel, left, and City Attorney John Kimball prepare for the May 23 City Council meeting.

CLEVELAND, Tenn. - The Cleveland City Council could appoint a new city manager as early as June 16.

City Manager Janice Casteel, who has served in the position since 2007, retires from a 42-year career with Cleveland, effective May 31.

A citizen advisory committee, appointed by the council, recommended five candidates for Cleveland's next chief administrator: Angie Carrier, Joe Fivas, Mark Reeter, Seth Sumner and Julie Underwood. All five candidates have experience with city or county leadership.

Sixty-three applicants responded to a nationwide search conducted by The Mercer Group on behalf of the city.

On Monday, the council agreed to interview the finalists on the afternoons of June 6-8, followed by a meeting on June 16 at 3 p.m.

Vice Mayor George Poe repeated statements he made during the council's May 9 meeting that he was displeased that no local applicants made the short list of recommended candidates.

"That was my biggest disappointment out of the whole process," Poe said, claiming that the last two city managers were local and had done outstanding jobs.

Councilman Bill Estes said he hoped the candidates would not listen to Poe's remarks, describing them as "a serious red flag."

"When we make irresponsible comments, we poison the well going forward," Estes said.

Attorney Roger Jenne, a member of the citizen advisory committee, responded to Poe's criticisms.

The group's first charge was to find "the most qualified candidates without regard to favor" of locality, politics, friendship or relatives, Jenne said.

"We understood that you wanted the best candidates to be presented to you," Jenne said. "And that's what you got."

The committee members independently scored the applicants based on their education, work experience, professional development and experience in this type of community, he said.

Although the committee graded the applicants independently, their end results matched very, very closely, Jenne said.

"It would have me really happy if a local candidate would have possessed the education, training and work experience to take on this important position that I believe is necessary to carry this community to a higher level," Jenne said. "Unfortunately, based upon that objective criteria, that didn't happen."

* Carrier currently serves as the development services director for Johnson City, Tenn., and has 16 years of municipal experience within Tennessee.

* Fivas has 19 years of government leadership experience in Indian Trail, N.C., and towns in Michigan.

* Reeter worked 19 years as a county administrator in Virginia, most recently for Bedford County.

* Sumner held the city manager post in Clifton, Tenn., between 2010 and 2012, and has served Savannah, Tenn., as its assistant city manager for the last four years.

* Underwood has held leadership posts in Washington and Maryland over a 16-year period and is currently the assistant city manger for Daly City, Calif.

Consultant Larry Wallace, who served as the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation from 1992-2003, facilitated the advisory committee and is conducting extensive background checks on the finalists. He told the council that he expected to report his findings by May 31.

Cleveland Assistant City Manager Melinda Carroll will serve as the interim city manager effective June 1 for up to 90 days.

Contact staff writer Paul Leach at 423-757-6481 or pleach@times freepress.com. Follow on Twitter @pleach_tfp.

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