Abilene City Commission approves LEAPS questionnaire, appoints community members to city manager search committee

Mayor Rin called the special meeting to order and led a roll call before the Commission moved to review the LEAPS questionnaire used for a city manager search.

Commissioners agreed to designate Shayla (city HR and clerk) as the city point of contact for the search and discussed forming a selection committee to assist with early vetting and community input while reserving final hiring authority for the governing body. City staff reported that six community nominees — Marcus Rothschild, Ross Taplan, Natalie Marado, Dana Sprinkle, Elizabeth Whis and Cassie Wilson — had indicated they are willing to serve if invited.

The Commission debated the selection committee’s role and composition, including whether community members should be limited to two to four participants or whether the full list should be invited; commissioners generally supported inviting the six nominees for the initial vetting and survey phases, and agreed the governing body will make final hiring decisions.

On interview logistics, the commission agreed to conduct initial interviews by Zoom (targeting five to seven remote interviews) and to hold two to three in-person finalist interviews. Commission members approved a maximum reimbursement of $1,000 per applicant to cover travel and lodging for in-person interviews, subject to city budget constraints.

Staff confirmed an existing ordinance establishing the city manager/administrator position (Ordinance 1939) is on file and that the job description is contained in city code or vault records; staff said they would provide copies of those materials along with the most recent budget and the last posted salary for the position. Commissioners discussed an advertised salary range and coalesced around posting a base salary of up to $150,000; staff noted the previous city manager’s compensation had been $123,231 as of April 2025.

Commissioners also asked staff to prepare candidate materials and a local media outreach list and to assemble narrative information about Abilene’s history, current development projects (including ball fields, Buckeye capital improvements, and the industrial park), and community goals and challenges for the candidate packet and league survey.

The Commission voted to approve the completed LEAPS questionnaire subject to staff completing it as directed during the meeting and authorized the mayor to sign the final document. The body then voted to appoint the six named community members to the city manager search committee, to serve alongside governing-body members and commissioners-elect. The meeting concluded with an adjournment vote.

Votes at a glance: - Approval of agenda (including addition of pledge): motion carried (Vice Mayor Miller: yes; Commissioner Wit: yes; Commissioner Kolhoff: yes; Commissioner Meisenberg: yes; Mayor Rin: yes). - Approval of LEAPS questionnaire (subject to staff completion) and authorization for the mayor to sign: motion carried (Commissioner Wit: yes; Commissioner Kolhoff: yes; Commissioner Meisenberg: yes; Vice Mayor Miller: absent/dropped off; Mayor Rin: yes). - Appointment of community members to search committee (Marcus Rothschild, Ross Taplan, Natalie Marado, Dana Sprinkle, Elizabeth Whis, Cassie Wilson): motion carried (Commissioner Wit: yes; Commissioner Kolhoff: yes; Commissioner Meisenberg: yes; Vice Mayor Miller: absent; Mayor Rin: yes).

Next steps: Staff will finalize the questionnaire as directed, circulate the candidate materials and survey, confirm budget availability for finalist reimbursements, provide copies of Ordinance 1939 and the job description, and extend invitations to the six community nominees for the selection committee. The Commission did not take any hiring action at the meeting.