The search for a new city manager for Scappoose has been whittled down to nine candidates.
The city has been searching to replace Alexandra Rains, who resigned her city manager post in February to take on the role of assistant city manager in Oregon City. At the Monday, May 6, city council meeting, councilors heard an update on the hiring process from Bob Larson of GMP Consultants.
“I’m pleased to report we received 17 applications for the position,” Larson told the council, noting that those applications were reviewed, and nine applications were determined to be “good, solid” candidates.
“We will be interviewing those candidates over the next two weeks, then we’ll present a report to your staff that they can distribute to you,” Larson said. “We’re anticipating a meeting on Thursday, May 23, in executive session, to go over those candidates with the mayor and council.”
When asked by Mayor Joe Backus about the next steps in the selection process, Larson replied to the council, “We’ll work with you, obviously, to determine the next steps, whether or not you want to continue to look at those candidates.”
Larson continued, “The council may decide they want to screen some of the candidates further or they may want to bring them in as finalists. Then we could determine that process, the structure of that, and who else may or may not be involved, besides the mayor and the council.”
Names of the nine applicants were not announced at the Monday city council meeting, although Larson said there were a few applicants from outside of Oregon.
Pamplin Media Group asked Backus if the public will have a chance to meet the finalists before a decision is made.
“The options may be whether and when council interviews the finalists, and do we have a community group meet the finalists,” Backus said. “The options will be discussed during executive session, then the council may vote on the process during open session.”
In the meantime, following Rains' resignation, the city council gave its full approval to Larry Lehman to become interim city manager.
Lehman is a former Seaside and Pendleton city manager. The city said earlier this year that his contract would run through July 1 and that he would earn $12,000 a month with no benefits or PERS.
The hiring of a city manager would not put all of the puzzle pieces together in Scappoose, as the city has yet to hire a police chief.
Brian Jensen took over duties as interim public safety director following the sudden resignation of Police Chief Steven Lougal in mid-January.
The city also experienced a brief void on the city council when Megan Greisen resigned her seat in February because she moved to a new home outside Scappoose city limits.
Ty Bailey was appointed to fill Greisen’s seat. Bailey, vice president of services for the e-commerce platform Recharge, beat out former council member Joel Haugen for the term, which runs through the end of 2024.
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