Ouray’s search for a new city administrator took a step back Tuesday when officials announced that at least two of the candidates being considered as finalists pulled their applications.
Mayor Greg Nelson, reading from a statement during a virtual meeting Tuesday afternoon, said the city will repast the city administrator job for 30 days.
“If we don’t have enough interested candidates that were viable for moving forward, we just want to move (the search) forward,” Nelson sa...
Ouray’s search for a new city administrator took a step back Tuesday when officials announced that at least two of the candidates being considered as finalists pulled their applications.
Mayor Greg Nelson, reading from a statement during a virtual meeting Tuesday afternoon, said the city will repast the city administrator job for 30 days.
“If we don’t have enough interested candidates that were viable for moving forward, we just want to move (the search) forward,” Nelson said in an interview with the Plaindealer a few hours after the meeting. “We owe the best city administrator we can get to our community.”
The city received more than 40 applications for the job. City councilors, working with Colorado Springs-based consultant KRW Associates, narrowed the fie ld to six semifinalists, then interviewed them in executive sessions on Monday and Tuesday.
Councilors had planned to identify the three finalists Tuesday and bring them to Ouray for in-person interviews and a community meet-and-greet on July 11. Instead, Nelson started Tuesday’s meeting, scheduled to begin at 2:30p.m., by announcing the beginning of the meeting was going to be delayed by 30 minutes, and that the council would then go into an executive session to receive advice from City Attorney Carol Viner.
Nelson sa id a ”couple” of candidates under co nsideration had withdrawn their applications following the interviews. Acting City Administrator posted a message during a meeting break indicating “some” candidates had pulled out.
After a 45-minute executive session, the council reconve ned, with Nelson saying the city didn’t have enough candidates “to legally move fonvard.”
The city didn’t identify the six semifinalists for the job -and didn’t have to under state law, which requires local governments to disclose the names of finalists for executive-level positions at least 14 days before extending an offer of employment.
It wasn’t clear exactly how many candidates pulled out, and city officials didn’t identify the reasons behind their decisions. Nelson declined to go into any other details about the turn of events. He did say that any of the candidates who made it through the interview process and are still interested in the job would be considered for it.
The council’s effort to find the city’s fourth administrator in less than three years has been hamstrung for a variety of reasons.
Justin Perry announced in February he planned to leave the job after just eight months in a full-time role in order to run for sheriff. Councilors thought they had found Perry’s interim replacement when they selected former Montrose Assistant City Manager Robert joseph from among four finalists. But one day after signing his contract, he turned down the job. Records showed city officials rejected Joseph’s request to be reimbursed for the mileage between his home in Montrose and Ouray.
Perry then agreed to stay on until the council appointed Finance and Administrative Services Director Melissa Drake the acting city administrator.