Four remain in Cleveland city manager search

Cleveland City Manager Janice Casteel and City Attorney John Kimball
Cleveland City Manager Janice Casteel and City Attorney John Kimball

CLEVELAND, Tenn. - The search for Cleveland's next city manager has narrowed to four candidates.

Janice Casteel, who has served as the city manager since 2007, retires today after a 42-year career with Cleveland.

A citizen advisory committee, appointed by the City Council, recommended five candidates after interviewing seven out of 63 applicants who responded to a nationwide search conducted by The Mercer Group on behalf of the city. Consultant Larry Wallace, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation from 1992-2003, has facilitated the search process.

Julie Underwood, assistant city manager for Daly City, Calif., dropped out shortly after the City Council requested that the five remaining candidates travel to Cleveland at their own expense for interviews.

"I'm disappointed that the Council has elected not to reimburse candidates for travel as is customary," Underwood said to Wallace in a May 24 email. "Unfortunately, I'm unable to support this expense. Please consider my application as formally withdrawn from the city manager recruitment process."

In an email to City Council members, Wallace said Underwood handled her withdrawal "with considerable class."

On a couple of occasions, Councilman Dale Hughes said he was willing to eliminate Underwood due to geographical reasons.

The City Council will interview applicants Angie Carrier, Joe Fivas, Mark Reeter, and Seth Sumner on the afternoons of June 6-7. The remaining candidates reside in Tennessee or neighboring states.

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

- 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 has served as the assistant city manager to Savannah, Tenn. for the last four years and held the city manager post for Clifton, Tenn., for two years prior to that.

The council will meet June 16 to consider the candidates.

In a recent meeting, Councilman Bill Estes took Vice Mayor George Poe to task for repeatedly stating he was displeased because no local applicants made the short list of recommended candidates.

Such statements raised "a serious red flag" for potential candidates, Estes said.

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

Attorney Roger Jenne, a member of the citizen advisory committee, said the panel's top priority was to find "the most qualified candidates without regard to favor" of locality, friendship, relatives or politics.

"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."

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@timesfreepress.com. Follow on Twitter @pleach_tfp.

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