Opinion: Cincinnati deserves more city manager candidates

As a former city manager and resident of Cincinnati, I’m concerned about the appalling lack of competition for the position of city manager. I serve as the executive director of the Large Cities Executive Forum −an organization of the top professionals in cities over 250,000 population in North America, both U.S. and Canada. There is a fabulous array of talent that should be competing for the Cincinnati job.

The city of Cincinnati has been disserved in its search for its next city manager. The task of the executive search firm is to recruit a competitive field of candidates for the mayor and council members to consider. Competition is key. As talented and committed as the city’s two internal candidates are, they must be challenged to compete with "the best and the brightest" in the field of city management − and clearly that has not happened.

There are almost no executives among those reported publicly with experience managing a large municipal government.  Some say that it may be challenging to recruit a competitive field because of the corruption of past years. I know that is nonsense. Cincinnati has a fine new mayor and completely new City Council. It literally is a new day of leadership for our city government. Coupled with Cincinnati’s long history of excellent council-manager government, attracting experienced candidates is not hard. It’s a good sell, frankly.

Apparently, the issue of confidentiality is perceived by some as a barrier. It should not be. Fine potential managers aren’t willing to put their existing employment at risk by agreeing to be lumped into a list that includes anyone at all who wants the job. That’s why the mayor and council should use the ability to hold executive sessions to discuss potential candidates before they become applicants. That hasn’t happened, a failure that is a huge weakness of the work so far.

Running an organization with thousands of employees in dozens of business units is complex. The manager has to know the businesses and have learned how to hire and lead and manage experienced managers. It’s a hard, complex role − and the political leaders of the city, our new team, need to choose their next city manager from among the best. Our leaders should step back and take another crack at doing this right. They may ultimately determine that our internal talent is the best − but they can’t know that unless they’ve been measured against the best.

Jerry Newfarmer is the former city manager of Cincinnati, San Jose and Fresno.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Jerry Newfarmer: Cincinnati deserves more city manager candidates