Two things are certain about the new city manager of East Ridge. The leader of the second largest city in Hamilton County since 2008 will hold a master's degree in public administration and be selected on March 14.
Four candidates - two from Tennessee and one each from Georgia and Florida - interviewed with the five-member City Council on Thursday and Friday over six hours before 25-30 citizens each night. The council asked candidates 15 questions before East Ridge News Online Editor Dick Cook asked five questions on behalf of citizens, who submitted questions before the interviews.
"I thought we had a good group of candidates," said Vice Mayor Esther Helton, who also represents East Ridge in the General Assembly.
At the request of Mayor Brian Williams in the first interview Thursday, the council stayed close to the same line of questioning for all four candidates. Main topics included building trust with the council and community, managing the police department, open records laws, the budgeting process and economic development.
Discussions around economic development focused on the candidate's understanding of the Border Region District Retail Tourism Tax, a special benefit sales tax that benefits East Ridge as a border city to Georgia. The Border Region Tax is the catalyst for the development at Exit 1, which is anchored by Bass Pro Shops. Citizen questions focused on what candidates would do on the opposite end of Ringgold Road, which dissects the city of 21,118.
"The city got the tax, stuck to its plans and found a mechanism to fund them," said David Milliron, city manager of Hogansville, Georgia. Milliron joined the other three candidates in saying he needed a more thorough briefing on the tax.
Under the Border Region Act, the state gives East Ridge 4.125 percent of the 7 percent sales tax revenue that any new businesses inside a 940-acre zone by the Ringgold Road and I-75 interchange generates in a fiscal year. East Ridge has received about $4.4 million in border region tax funds since 2014.
Candidates interviewing in addition to Milliron were Hixson resident Chris Dorsey, the city administrator of Sparta, Tennessee; Caryn Miller, former city manager of Millersville, Tennessee; and Lyndon Bonner, former county administrator of Jackson County, Florida.
All four candidates hold master's degrees in public administration.
Each was given the chance at the end of the interview to give a closing statement or ask the council a question. Miller, who is working temporarily as assistant city manager in Thompson Station, Tennessee, was the only one to do so when she asked the council why East Ridge had high turnover at the city manager position.
"This is a new council and [we] are looking forward," said Williams, who noted that two members of the council are in their first term and four of the five did not serve before 2016.
"It's had a bad reputation, and I wanted to see their reaction," said Miller, who said she wouldn't feel comfortable accepting the job without asking the question. "After watching them, I feel they are really looking to move forward and in a new direction. I feel more comfortable right now than I did when I walked in."
The council opted not to move forward with a selection Friday night. Helton suggested the selection be made at the next regularly scheduled meeting on March 14, and the council agreed. Council asked city staff to develop a compensation package for the new city manager by March 8. The salary will be in the range of $110,000.
Council members Mike Chauncey and Andrea Witt expressed public support for Milliron, while Williams, Helton and Jackie Cagle did not offer a preference during public discussions.
The vacancy was created when Scott Miller retired in August 2018. Dorsey, the only local candidate, turned the East Ridge job down in 2013 before accepting a position at Signal Mountain.
"Honestly, [any] job has to be a good fit for me to work with the board," said Dorsey, "and I just didn't feel like it was a good fit."