Shock: 31-Year-Old CM Dies

A young town manager in Maine with many years in front of him has passed away suddenly, shocking the community. A village in Illinois is trying to takeover a private water utility. A former city manager turned recruiter explains to a Virginia council why they are going to have a tough time finding a new manager. And find out why a county commission cannot conduct meetings or vote in their brand spanking new building that cost $140 million.

All that and more news after the job postings.

It is free to post all of your senior and executive level recruitments over at the AAME job board. If you would like to include them in this newsletter, select the $199 option.

It was quite a shock for me to read a story about the passing of Skowhegan (ME) Town Manager Nicholas Nadeau. Having come to public administration in my 40’s as part of a career pivot, all of the previous executives who have passed away and been mentioned in this newsletter over the years were unknown to me.

Although I did not know Nicholas personally, we have had exchanges via LinkedIn (profile) messenger and text exchanges, as well. He was just 31 and much, much too young to be in my newsletter for this reason. He is but another reminder of how precious and fleeting our time on this Earth is.

Also passing away is:

Some fascinating points raised in this article about Warrenton’s town manager search by the recruiter and a local government expert. The town has had a rocky recent past with their manager position (see timeline of turnover).

Kimball Payne, a consultant from the Berkeley Group, asked what the mayor and council members are looking for and explained what they can expect to find in the current market. When they said they wanted a manager with backbone who will not get bowled over by the council, Payne queried.

“How do you receive a candid response, a brutally honest response, from a manager that disagrees with what you've just said?”

Both Payne and Charles Hartgrove, managing director of the Virginia Institute of Government, agreed that it has become more difficult to find people interested in being a town manager. Hartgrove believes partisan politics is playing a role in it.

Also mentioned in the article is the reality that internal candidates are no longer as eager to step in and fill manager vacancies.

Forsyth County is set to open a $140 million administration building, but a state law prohibits county commissioners from voting and conducting official business outside the county seat, which is the city of Cumming.

The building is located along Freedom Parkway, just over two miles north of the Cumming city limits. One solution is to have the land annexed by Cumming — but for some reason — they are playing hardball and opposing the idea.

Baker County commissioners heard from two officials in Deschutes County, including County Administrator Nick Lelack, about what they consider the benefits are of having a full-time administrator handle a county’s daily operations.

Lelack said having an administrator gives elected commissioners more time to devote to creating policies, serving on committees, lobbying state and federal lawmakers and talking with constituents.

Voters will decided in May on whether they want to make the administrator change.

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