After a lengthy interview process with four candidates, the Newport City Council on Friday, April 19, voted unanimously to offer Nina Vetter the position of city manager, pending contract negotiations.
The interview process, facilitated by Jensen Strategies of Portland, occurred over four days last week. It included staff and community receptions and panel interviews by community leaders, peer public administrators, city department heads, and the city council.
The council then met in executive session for several hours on Friday for an extensive discussion of each of the candidates. The executive session was originally scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon, but it ended up being extended until around 2 p.m. Immediately following that, council members gathered in open session for the official vote.
Mayor Jan Kaplan said, “I think we had a very, very thorough process. We were fortunate to be able to come up with as many candidates as we did who all seriously met our qualifications.”
Kaplan expressed appreciation to each of the candidates vying the position. “It was a pleasure meeting with them, and I think we all learned something from each of them. It was a very difficult decision, and we just express our appreciation for the time they took to come to the coast and spend as much time as they did here and to respond to all of our questions.”
Nina Vetter recently served as the city manager in Gresham. She previously served as city administrative officer for the Pueblo West Metropolitan District in Colorado; strategy, performance and contract compliance manager and senior budget management analyst for Colorado Springs, Colorado; and financial and administrative services associate for the USAID-State Department for the Country of Georgia.
Vetter holds a master of public administration degree from Northern Illinois University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from George Washington University.
The other candidates for the city manager position were:
• David Benson, current senior managing consultant for PFM Management and Budget Consulting;
• Robert Field, who most recently served as the city manager for San Bernardino, California;
• Gary Marks, the current public works director for Dallas, Oregon.
The city will begin negotiating a contract for employment with Vetter, and a timeline for her arrival will be announced at a later date.
Current City Manager Spencer Nebel will officially retire on July 8. He has been serving in that role since December 2013.
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