Bethel is one step closer to hiring a new city manager.
Bethel City Council will move forward with site visits to Bethel and additional interviews for two of the three city manager finalists after conducting over three hours of interviews and closed-door deliberations on Jan. 10. Council members publicly asked three finalist candidates just over a dozen questions apiece about their municipal experience, managerial philosophy, and experience.
Candidates John Millan and Bert O’Rear will be invited to Bethel, hopefully at some time in early February.
John Millan has worked for the City of Pasco in Washington State as its deputy director of Public Works since 2016. He’s also held various other public works positions in cities around the state of Washington. He is a retired veteran of the Army National Guard.
Here’s a portion of his answer about what is most and least attractive about the Bethel city manager position:
“I think it's really cool and really unique to live in a community that looks at the river, at the Kuskokwim River and the tundra, as the provider of life. You don't have that down here. What you have is a hustle and bustle, and people are so fast that they don't know what they have. And so I would say that those two things are probably the most attractive. The least attractive? I'm not really digging the five hours of daylight in the wintertime.”
Bert O’Rear has been the town administrator for the town of Olar, South Carolina since 2016. In recent years, he’s also held administrative positions for municipal and county governments in South Carolina. He is a Tribal Member of the Whitetop Nation of American Indians.
Here’s part of O’Rear’s answer to the same question as Millan about what he finds most and least attractive about the city manager position:
“The attractive part is, I just got through salting my driveway and my front porch because of all the snow. So I'm used to the snow. So it's not going to be any different, because I'm in upstate [New York]. I'm about 60 miles, maybe 60 miles from the Canadian border right now, where I'm at right now. So I find that it's a lot like where I'm at right now. So I'm happy about that. I'm not going to complain about the weather. And the least attractive thing that I find right now about the city of Bethel is finding employees for positions. I've looked at your job postings, and I see that you've got a number of positions posted that I guess you've had them posted for a while. So that would be one of the first things that I would try to work on is trying to get those positions filled and working with [Human Resources], the city clerk, and the council on getting those positions filled.”
The third finalist, who council members did not move to invite for a site visit, was Joe Rodriguez, the manager of an airport security operation in Tampa, Florida.
Bethel City Clerk Lori Strickler said on Jan. 11 that the local administration will try to coordinate with the two finalists for February site visits. There is not currently a set date for the council to make a final decision on a new city manager.
Find a recording of the full interviews with all three city manager candidate finalists here.
