The Human Resources and Information Technology Committee met 04/27/2022. One of the information items they discussed was the Recruitment Status report, specifically the status on the search for a new Director of Public Works and their expectations on finding a new police chief, since Chief Todd Thomas recently announced that he would be retiring in January of 2023.
Human Resources Director Jay Ratchman told the committee that recruitment for the Director of Public Works position continued to be difficult. They knew it would be even with the help of an outside recruitment firm.
They have now held four interviews for the position and have conducted those interviews when each candidate has been presented versus waiting for all of the candidates to be presented at once. The fourth interview had actually been held earlier that day. “If I had to tell you today ‘Do I feel like we have a candidate that we would want to hire?’ I would say, yes.”
However, he noted that there was still work to be done, and as they had seen with the Health Officer position, until the deal was closed, they didn’t have that candidate. So, they remained in contact with Employment Resource Group which would continue to present candidates. The original proposal had been that ERG would present 3-5 candidates, but they were going to continue to present candidates and Director Ratchman did not believe Appleton would be limited to only five because some of the candidates had been a little light on experience. The situation was tough, but he was encouraged.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) asked if there was any potential need for more money to be thrown at the recruitment process for this position.
At this point, Director Ratchman did not think so. The compensation had been fine for all of the candidates, even the very qualified ones, and the benefits were very competitive. He thought it was more a matter of whether or not a candidate wanted to make the move to Appleton from where they were currently located.
Alderperson Kristin Alfheim (District 11) asked about the Police Chief position and wondered if it would be filled internally or externally and if Director Ratchman felt that the process would be shorter than that of filling the Public Works Director position.
Director Ratchman answered that the Police and Fire Commission really runs that hiring process, and HR was there to support them. He had heard rumors that there might be some internal candidates, but there was also a national search happening. At this point, he had not looked at the applications, but knew there was a handful thus far. He was hopeful it would be a shorter process than the Public Works Director search.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=958514&GUID=D076C15E-810B-4AF9-B4E8-EA475AD376CC
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