Fort Collins city manager pursuit revs up

FORT COLLINS — The Fort Collins City Council plans to finalize the job description for its new city manager on Tuesday, Nov. 16. A working session Thursday set parameters, and the city’s chief human resources officer Teresa Roche will spend the weekend prepping the resolution for next week.

Fort Collins joins the city of Greeley in moving forward on hiring a new top executive.

Roche told BizWest that first-up priorities for the new hire — expected to come in spring 2022 — include issues such as “climate change, COVID-19, housing and affordability and equity and inclusion.”

Roche said terms likely to be part of the final description were drawn from some 60 “listening sessions” and city council talks. These include “strategic systems leader,” “city partnerships,” “managing in large complex environments,” and “curious, agile learner” who “listen deeply [in] humility and confidence.”

Roche said interactions included city employee and public forums, personal meetings, and larger groups of city stakeholders such as nonprofits, business representatives and community organizations. Some 40 of them also included the city’s Texas-based recruiter SGR.

SGR stands for Strategic Government Resources. It was chosen in September from a request-for-proposals process and has been involved in headhunting government staff in 45 states. City manager or administrator openings on the site include positions in Texas, Missouri and Arizona. Its only Colorado slot until after next Tuesday is for an information-technology manager in Wheat Ridge.

Roche said the overall aim was to include “many different voices for the recruitment brochure.” The work culminated in “what does the council want?” and in the brochure wording to be considered Tuesday.

“They have a huge talent pool,” Roche said of SGR. The position is also being discussed among people working in the industry because so many know former Fort Collins city manager Darin Atteberry, who left in August. Atteberry is now market president for Northern Colorado and senior vice president for government affairs and strategic partnerships with Elevations Credit Union.

Process orienting

Roche said that pending city council approval Tuesday of final wording, a job brochure will be ready by the end of the month. The search will take 30 to 45 days. At that point, the pool of candidates will be culled, first to semi-finalists then to finalists, with final selection sometime in the first quarter.

The Fort Collins City Council will oversee each stage of the choice.

An ad hoc committee of the council including Mayor Jeni Arndt, and councilmembers Susan Gutowsky and Shirley Peel began the discussions with Roche in September. The city has devoted an email address to the recruitment, as well.

Roche declined to give a pay range for the new position, saying the city has to do a market analysis of 20 comparable cities and produce a percentile ranking of base pay for the top city executives in those areas.

Atteberry’s base pay in 2020, his last full year with the city, was $278,475, according to a Jan. 2020 city council document setting the salary. This was a 3% increase over 2019. The council held three executive sessions for a performance review before setting the 2020 base amount. Total compensation, including a benefits package and car allowance, Roche said, typically can boost a pay package by some 20% or more.

Roche’s market analysis for Atteberry’s 2020 salary placed his pay just above the 75th percentile for the 20 cities. The 10th percentile began at about $216,000; the 90th at about $351,000.

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