Galesburg City Council met on Monday night in a work session to discuss the process for hiring the next Galesburg City Manager.
Council first convened into a closed-door executive session for about 20 minutes before emerging into open session.
The rest of the time was largely a presentation from GovHR representative Mark Peterson.
GovHR was the recruitment firm used by Galesburg to find Gerald Smith who was Galesburg City Manager for 7 months until he signed a separation agreement in June.
GovHR is contractually obligated to conduct another search given Smith did not work a full year in the position.
Peterson says it’s currently a very difficult “environment to recruit city managers.”
He agreed with Interim City Manager Wayne Carl that the process to hire a city manager should take somewhere between 3 to 6 months.
Peterson says the job should be posted in the next few weeks after Council reviews some documents.
The job will be posted for about 4 weeks before evaluations will begin.
Peterson says that GovHR will already be familiar with several candidates who apply, and for those they aren’t familiar with they’ll do a thorough background search.
After the job posting is closed, Peterson will do a “deep dive”, including an hour-long interview, and recommend a few candidates he thinks would be the best fit for Galesburg.
A candidate profile that was created when Smith was hired will be used again.
It’s a document that serves as a guide for what qualities an ideal City Manager would have and was created with input from Aldermen and city staff.
Last time the City posted a salary range of $150,000 -$165,000, which Peterson says is on the low-end of comparable cities but is “respectable.”
He recommended a range that was $5,000 higher on both ends.