The Clark County Council will restart its national search for a new county manager after deciding to pass on two finalists.
The county has been without a permanent county manager since the council suddenly dismissed Mark McCauley in May. The county hired Strategic Government Resources, a Texas-based recruiting and consulting firm, to conduct the search for $27,000.
The county announced in late January that it had settled on two finalists: Dan Chandler, assistant county administrator for Clackamas County, Ore., and Randall Partington, administrator of Finney County, Kan.
Both candidates visited Clark County earlier this week for two days, meeting with county staff, community members and the county council.
The council, which provides direction to the manager, determined that neither candidate had the exact match of skills and qualities they were seeking.
“We thought they were both very good,” said Council Chair Marc Boldt. “If you could put the two together, they would be perfect.”
The county will use the same firm and won’t have to pay extra to restart the search, Boldt said. This time, the county will focus on recruiting candidates with experience in county government and will mention a desire for candidates to have prior experience in growth management and budgeting in advertising materials, he said.
The county has advertised a salary of $160,000 to $180,000 for the position. Boldt said the county might consider upping the pay to $200,000.
Boldt didn’t give a timeline for hiring the next manager. He said that Interim County Manager Jim Rumpeltes was expecting to step down about now but has agreed to stay on a bit longer.
“We are kind of on borrowed time, so we’re pushing it,” Boldt said.
