Cape council to get city manager search update

The Illinois-based consultant charged with identifying candidates to replace retiring Cape Girardeau city manager Scott Meyer will update the City Council on progress privately Monday.

GovHR USA vice president Mark Peterson, a former 20-year municipal manager of Normal, Illinois, will gather with the seven-person council during closed session.

At least one member of the council will have to join the meeting remotely as Mayor Bob Fox tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week and is at home under quarantine.

“(Peterson) will tell us about his findings after surveying (city) staff, the council and city employees,” said Fox, who said the next step in the search is developing a city manager profile.

Once a profile is completed, Fox said, a process will be laid out to advertise the position.

“We don’t expect to advertise until after the first of the year,” Fox added.

Peterson said he has already developed the position profile and will ask for council feedback.

“Once the profile is finalized,” said Peterson, “we’ll put together a recruitment brochure and prepare a job posting announcement,” which he said would be shared in trade magazines, other publications and on social media.

Peterson said he expects the position to be advertised beginning in mid-January with a candidate selected by the time of Meyer’s June retirement.

Familiar with Cape

GovHR, a Northbrook, Illinois-based executive search firm, according to information on the company’s website, assisted in the search for a leader for the Cape Girardeau Fire Department in 2019.

Travis Hollis, who became chief Aug. 19, 2019, formally resigned last month and was succeeded by Randy Morris Jr., a 16-year CGFD veteran.

Peterson said while his company led the effort that selected Hollis, he was not the consultant on that search.

Earlier, Fox told the Southeast Missourian the cost of the city manager search will be approximately $24,000.

A dozen years ago, the city paid $10,000 for the search that landed Meyer, who came to the role after four years as director of facilities management for Southeast Missouri State University.

In 2009, the city received 56 resumes from 23 states before deciding on Meyer, an in-town applicant, whose initial annual salary was $117,000 with a $8,000 performance bonus.

Asked whether a local candidate had a natural advantage in the process, Peterson didn’t agree.

“Ordinarily, (being local) is not a huge benefit,” he opined, adding an insistence on a local candidate “may restrict the pool (of applicants).”

Peterson said it is not uncommon toward the end of a hiring process to solicit community input before a hire is made but said that decision would be up to city officials.

Meyer is expected to depart the manager’s office after 12 years on the job, making him the longest-tenured person ever to hold the position in city history.