Helena City Commission met in a special session July 21 to review a proposed recruitment plan from Communication Management Services LLC to fill the city manager post after City Manager Burton announced he will retire at the end of the year. The materials in the commission packet proposed a compact timeline intended to produce finalists before year-end, a revised salary range and a public engagement element led by the consultant.

The recruitment plan matters because the city manager is Helena City’s chief executive and selecting a permanent successor will shape the city’s administration through the upcoming budget season and beyond. Commissioners and members of the public pressed for clarity about committee composition, community input before initial screening, and the effect of Thanksgiving and other holidays on the consultant’s proposed schedule.

Drew Geiger, a consultant with Communication Management Services, told the commission the firm had modeled the timeline on the last Helena search and had already begun outreach. Geiger said the search would advertise through national and professional channels and that “we're not guaranteeing a candidate by this time… If all goes well and we get good applicants in, I can tell you we have in‑state and out‑of‑state applicants as of today.” He said CMS typically waits to do a consolidated screening rather than screening applications piecemeal, and that the firm would provide ranked screening results to the full commission for oversight.

The packet and discussion described specific milestones: a job posting within 10 days of moving forward; an initial screening within 30 days of posting; director‑level engagement and a town‑hall style public forum during finalist interviews; and a target for a job offer in mid‑December (the materials list 12/15 as a possibility). The materials also propose increasing the advertised salary from roughly $107,000 to a range of $175,000 to $205,000 depending on experience, and recommend identifying at least three finalists for the commission to consider.

Commissioners offered mixed reactions. Commissioner Reid said the process felt “rushed” and asked for an added step to consult the community on screening priorities before the initial screening, noting that the planned public engagement during finalist interviews — a town‑hall format — would collect public comment but “is not true participation.” Commissioner Dean and others said the proposed plan closely follows the playbook used in the previous search and expressed confidence that the consultant could produce a high‑quality pool in the proposed timeline. Several commissioners asked for clarification about the ad hoc city manager relations subcommittee’s scope and membership, noting the possibility that one member may leave office before the search concludes.

Members of the public urged more time for meaningful input. Ben Kiper, chair of the Home Assistance Council, offered his group’s assistance and interest in participating on a finalist interview panel. Mary Hollow, executive director of Pure Land Trust, said the compressed schedule and holding community engagement over Thanksgiving week would limit public participation and recommended delaying steps to allow broader stakeholder involvement. Hollow told the commission, “A town hall format is public comment, and that is not true participation.”

Commission discussion also recounted recent process milestones recorded in the packet: at an administrative meeting on Oct. 1 the commission gave unanimous consensus to pursue an initial consult with CMS; on Oct. 3 the mayor and a commissioner met with CMS; and, according to the packet, the commission unanimously approved a contract with Communication Management Services LLC at a special meeting on Oct. 6. Commissioners and staff said the commission has historically used informal ad hoc subcommittees for recruitment work; such groups typically meet without formal public notice when fewer than a quorum attends and do not always produce minutes, but report back to the full commission at public meetings.

No new formal vote to authorize the contract or to change the advertised timeline was recorded in this meeting. City staff volunteered to collect written recommendations from commissioners on refined steps for community engagement and subcommittee composition, to relay those items to CMS, and to return updates at a future public meeting.

The commission left open the possibility that the search will extend into the new year if the applicant pool or scheduling constraints — including holidays — require a longer window. Commissioners emphasized they do not intend to leave the city without active management through the transition: staff and current department directors would provide coverage if the process extends past the manager’s retirement date.

Next steps noted at the meeting included collecting commissioner suggestions on community engagement and screening metrics, having the city clerk forward those to CMS, and returning a revised timeline and engagement plan for public review at a subsequent meeting.