Hermiston residents may not know who the next city manager will be, but a profile of what attributes he or she should have is beginning to take shape following Tuesday’s public input forum at the Hermiston Conference Center.
The turnout on Tuesday was small, but the feedback heard by Greg Prothman was significant. Prothman is president of the Prothman Company, a search firm out of Issaquah, Wash., hired by the city to recruit candidates to replace Hermiston City Manager Ed Brookshier, who is retiring at the end of the year.
“We do a lot of city manager searches every year,” said Prothman. “We have done probably somewhere in the area of 90 or 80 of these searches; and so it’s always helpful for me to understand from a community perspective what it is I should be looking for, because every city manager doesn’t fit in every community.”
Hermiston City Councilor Manuel Gutierrez emphasized that cooperation between Hermiston’s Hispanic and Caucasian communities should be one of the new city administrator’s priorities. Fellow Councilor George Anderson agreed.
“We have made great strides,” said Anderson, “but those have to continue; it has to be ‘us,’ not ‘them and us.’ We have to do that now, and we have to continue with it because the Hispanic Latino community is going to grow.”
Port of Umatilla General Manager Kim Puzey said the next city manager must understand the importance of agriculture to the area’s economy.
“This community is in the midst of the second most productive agricultural area in North America,” he said. “We have to have someone who understands the economy.”
Puzey also emphasized the need for an administrator who will seek ways to foster continued growth in the city.
“We are first- and second-generation here for the most part; and as a result of that, this community is open to new people, new ideas,” said Puzey. “It’s progressive, and that’s part of why I think it’s growing. I would hope that we can select someone who can grasp that quickly.”
Puzey and Anderson said it is important to provide a compensation package that attracts a quality administrator.
“A good administrator is cheap at twice the price,” said Anderson. “The amount of money that a good administrator will save you in the short run and in the long run is substantial. It’s not to say that we overpay folks, but fairly compensate them because this is a tough job.”
Hermiston Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Debbie Pedro said she would like to see the next city manager embrace the city the way Brookshier has. When he steps down at the end of the year, Brookshier will have held the job for 23 years.
“I’d like to find somebody who would love to live in Hermiston — and who would want to get involved in their community and is a good communicator, is a good fiscal manager, has experience and can be a good leader for our community,” she said. “And I think that Ed has personified that, but those are very important attributes that we would want to look for, for our community.”
Mayor Dave Drotzmann said there is great potential for industrial development out at the Umatilla Chemical Depot property and the next city manager should work to capitalize on the opportunities for growth the land has to offer.
“There’s a great opportunity for the city of Hermiston to capitalize on development and industry that happens out there, and those people that come to our community as well,” he said. “And that’s an opportunity for a city manager to work constructively with the regional collaboration with the county — with Morrow County and Umatilla County as well as the ports—to help develop that property.”
“The depot is a really important thing,” Anderson added. “We are hopeful that there will be a no-cost conveyance from the United States government of approximately 1,000 acres on the Umatilla County side and about 1,200 acres on the Morrow County side. Then it will be our job to try to market it to people for development. The point is that there’s not just short-term things; there’s long-term things.”
Over the next week or so, Prothman will summarize the suggestions from Tuesday’s forum into a position profile. Then, Drotzmann said, the profile “will be up for the council’s purview to kind of help give some more guidance and suggestions on improving it.”
More Stories From Northeast Oregon Now:
Brookshier Outlines City’s Objectives for 2014
Driver in Highway 204 Accident Dies
