Newberry rethinking its strategy: Q&A for manager candidate

NEWBERRY – Mayor Bill Conrad announced to the Newberry City Commission Tuesday night that he had checked Mike New’s references and background and was ready to move forward on negotiations with a contract to hire New as the next city manager.

Commissioner Jordan Marlowe was ready to move a motion in that direction until dissenting commissioners brought up reasons to slow the process down.

“I checked Mr. New’s background,” Mayor Conrad said. “I talked to Gib Coerper, the Mayor of Alachua, he gave him a very high recommendation. I talked to Clovis Watson, our State Representative, who gave an extremely high recommendation,” Conrad said. “And he [Clovis] offered to come and speak on Mr. New’s behalf.”

Commissioner Tim Marden then said he also checked references on both New and Isaac Turner, the second place candidate.

With that Commissioner Marlowe stated, “I will make a motion that we begin contract negotiations with Mr. New.” Commissioner Marden seconded the motion and then Conrad asked, “Any further discussion?”

Commissioner Monty Farnsworth expressed concern over making the decision before getting a background report back on second-place candidate Isaac Turner. Conrad replied that even if Turner gets a clean report, based on rankings, New would still be the top candidate.

Farnsworth then said he wanted to bring New back to discuss “more specific things” other than the formatted questions they were required to ask during the formal interview process.

Marlowe tried to explain that he felt commissioners had plenty of time with the candidates and said he had talked on the phone with each and had meet-and-greets with both candidates.

“The strongest negative comment I heard about Mr. New is that he can be stubborn,” Marlowe said.

“He’s local, has qualifications…I’m ready to move forward.”

Commissioner Rick Coleman agreed with Farnsworth. “At least bring him in here for off-the-wall questioning for the next meeting,” Coleman said. “We’ve had a lot of citizens telling us not to hurry this. Maybe even get some questions from the citizens.”

Conrad declared that two commissioners were ready to go, Marlowe and Marden, and that there were two commissioners who wanted to wait two weeks.

“It all comes down to you Mr. McGehee,” Conrad said and turned the floor over to recently elected Commissioner Jason McGehee.

McGehee said, “I spent more time researching these two guys than I should have.”

“This is the most important thing we’re going to do for some time,” he added. “I would like to move forward. I would like the citizens to have a chance. That way they feel it’s not just us five up here making the decision.”

City Attorney Scott Walker then urged the council to establish a pay range so that he could begin drafting a contract.

“Start at a number that you feel is appropriate given the candidate’s qualifications,” Walker said. “That is something that may go back and forth over some period of time,” he added. “Then get with Mr. New and drop the numbers into the contract.”

Conrad said, “My recommendation would be the low number because he doesn’t have a lot of experience as a city manager.”

But Marlowe was cautious about a low offer. “We get what we pay for,” he said. “We set that range based on the average salary of cities our size.”

Marlowe offered an idea of a salary that could increase with incentives. “I’d be comfortable with saying $80k for your first six months and reach benchmarks as incentive,” he said.

Coleman reminded his peers that New would be getting more than salary if he took the position. “He’s got a car he’s taking home. He’s got all of his benefits, there’s a severance package that’s going to be sitting out there.

“It’s a whole lot more than $80,000. We gotta look at it like that too,” he said about New, who currently works for the City of Alachua as Public Services Director.

“I don’t think he has that over there where he’s at,” Coleman said. “He’s not riding around in a car and probably doesn’t have his six-month package.”

Marlowe asked the city attorney, “New didn’t meet the criteria set. Can we start out with something lower than we advertised?

The advertised amount for the Newberry City Manager position was $85,000 - $120,000 for a qualified candidate.

According to Conrad, a qualified candidate, according to the job posting, should have a Bachelors degree in Public Administration, (masters preferred), five years of experience as a city manager (10 preferred), strong background in utilities, strong background in economic development through sports.

“The commission decided to look at Mr. New, who did not have city manager experience, but had served under Clovis Watson for five years,” Conrad said. “Also, it was felt that his exceptionally strong background in utilities and his engineering degree would more that make up for lack of actual city manager experience.”

Walker answered Marlowe’s question, “This is a negotiation. You can do what you think is appropriate.”  

Coleman said, “I don’t want him to think we misled him,” about a possible shift in salary offered.

The commission settled on a motion for a beginning salary of $80,000 and possible raise after a six-month probation and for staff to negotiate three benchmarks for New to meet for further salary hikes.

McGehee seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.

Farnsworth questioned, “That does not necessarily mean we hired him?”

The collective answer was, “No.”

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