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Virgin council sets recruitment work plan for town manager, aims to post job in March
Summary
The Town of Virgin’s council discussed recruitment templates and timelines for hiring a town manager, agreed to review ICMA and Arizona League sample processes, consider local resources (state local-adviser and contracted personnel expert), and target a March posting with follow-up at the council meeting.
The Town of Virgin council met Feb. 5, 2025, after the local building authority adjourned and discussed a plan to recruit and hire the town’s first town manager. Council members reviewed sample recruitment guides, set a target to post the job in March and asked staff to provide a draft job description and process template for a follow-up meeting.
Why it matters: The town enacted an ordinance creating the town manager position two weeks earlier; the recruitment will shape long-term municipal operations and the profile of senior staff. Council members emphasized using an established recruitment template and using local/state resources to screen candidates efficiently.
What councilmembers discussed
- Templates and timeline: Councilmembers reviewed an International City/County Management Association (ICMA) recruitment guide and a condensed hiring timeline from the Arizona League of Cities and Towns (page 40 was cited as a sample schedule). The council’s working target is to have the job posted in March; the Arizona sample had a projected mid-to-late-March posting with an appointment several months later.
- Use of local resources: Councilmembers discussed engaging the state’s local administrative adviser and the town’s contracted personnel expert to help with candidate screening, background checks and process design. A named town manager in a nearby jurisdiction (Joe Decker) was mentioned as willing to be a resource for questions.
- In-house versus external recruitment: The council said it would consider a hybrid model and use outside help for tasks such as background checks while leading screening and interviews themselves, rather than retaining a full executive-search firm at this time.
- Job profile specifics: Members discussed emphasizing multitasking and some planning experience in the job profile to reflect the town’s small size and the need for a broadly skilled manager; multiple members said they would assemble sample job descriptions to combine into a draft for review.
Next steps and meeting schedule
- Staff uploaded several sample templates to SharePoint. Councilmembers were asked to review those templates and the sample job descriptions before the next meeting.
- The council tentatively agreed to discuss the draft job description and a recruitment process template at the council’s next regular meeting and to start initial screening after the posting. Councilmembers also agreed to use the upcoming work meeting (scheduled tentatively for next Wednesday, with contractor interviews at 4:30 p.m. discussed) to continue the hiring-process work if time permits.
Ending
Councilmembers set a near-term work plan: staff will prepare a draft job description using the selected template and identify local resources for screening; the council will revisit the draft at the next regular meeting and aim to post the job in March.
