Wilsonville council reviews draft city manager recruitment profile, seeks clearer community outreach

Wilsonville — The City Council on Nov. 12 reviewed a draft city manager recruitment profile prepared by GMP Consultants and pressed staff and the search consultant to ensure local community leaders have meaningful input before the recruitment is posted. Consultant Richard Myers told the council he will present a final draft for adoption at the Nov. 17 regular meeting and recommended opening the recruitment immediately afterward to avoid a January delay; he identified Dec. 29 as a proposed first review date for applications.

Myers summarized the process used to build the draft, saying several interviews remain but the feedback so far largely aligns with the document. "If we don't start the recruitment next week, we will probably strongly be recommending you wait till after January," Myers said, noting that candidates commonly pause job searches during the holidays. He described outreach plans including posting to typical job boards, League and ICMA channels, targeted mailings and direct mail of roughly 3,500 packets to prospective candidates.

Council members generally described the profile as "comprehensive" and "attractive." Councilor Scott said the profile "fits the bill" for what the city is looking for and emphasized the importance of final interview questions and one‑on‑one exchanges to assess cultural fit. Council President Barry cautioned that some imagery in the packet (a winter photo) might give a misleading impression of local conditions but said he appreciated that the profile notes financial sustainability and budget challenges.

Mayor (unnamed) pushed for clearer evidence of community involvement in the consultant's outreach. The mayor asked for the names of the "12 other community members" referenced in an earlier presentation and said it is "imperative" that local leaders outside city staff and council be included in the input. The mayor named several community figures he expected to be consulted, including Lee Crosby, David Mock, Tim Cook and Donna Atkinson, and asked staff to document outreach efforts so that nonparticipation is on the record.

Myers responded that some of the counts he used included department heads and that several community leaders have not yet responded; he asked for council assistance contacting those individuals. Council members proposed emailing the draft to a targeted distribution list and asking for brief responses within a short window to capture community input before the Nov. 17 meeting.

On logistics, staff and the consultant outlined that finalist interviews would likely take one or two days in February, with roughly an hour per candidate and planned breaks. Myers described finalist evaluation options — council interviews as a single panel, small‑group tours of city facilities, and parallel panel interviews with debriefs — and said some jurisdictions hold public receptions or public comment sessions for finalists after bios are released. Council members expressed concern about candidate privacy and agreed public receptions or public comment opportunities could be timed later in the process (for example when finalists are reduced to three).

The council did not take formal votes during the work session. The next procedural steps are to place the final profile on the Nov. 17 regular meeting agenda for potential adoption and, if adopted, to post the recruitment and begin accepting applications with a tentative Dec. 29 first review date. The work session adjourned at 4:41 p.m.

Notes: Quotes and attributions are drawn from the work session transcript; names for council members were provided in the meeting transcript as role labels (e.g., "Councilor Scott," "Council President Barry," "Councilor Cunningham") and have been used without adding given names not present in the record.