Rockland council set to review manager hopefuls

January 23, 2012

ROCKLAND — The Rockland City Council will begin its review of candidates for city manager on Wednesday evening.

Thirty-four people applied for the manager post vacated in October by Rosemary Kulow who left for the town manager post in Poland.

The council meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. The council plans to go into a closed-door session to review the applications.

Eaton Peabody Consulting Group is assisting the city council in the review process. Don Gerrish of Eaton Peabody had said he expected Rockland would attract 45 to 50 applicants. Eaton Peabody is providing all the applications to the council but also said it would offer recommendations on which candidates met the criteria established by councilors.

The advertisement posted for the city stated that the council wanted candidates with a minimum of five years of demonstrated municipal management experience as a manager or similar related position. The council would also accept applicants with equivalent private upper management experience.

The council is seeking a candidate with knowledge/experience in areas of economic development, finance, strategic and long-term planning, budgeting, labor relations, policy and project management. The candidates must also have superior visionary skills with excellent leadership and organizational skills, be an excellent written and oral communicator with team building experience, and have conflict management skills and quality decision experience. The candidates must also provide "leadership with integrity, honesty, openness and humor combined with creative problem solving."

The person selected by the council will be required to live in Rockland and become an active part of the community.

Eaton Peabody is being paid $5,000 for its work.

Finance Director Tom Luttrell is serving as interim city manager in Rockland.

Courtesy of the Village Soup

By Stephen Betts