The city of Canby is in the midst of a nationwide search for a new city administrator to replace Rick Robinson, who is highly regarded by the City Council and the community, but who is retiring at the end of October.
Council President Tim Dale says the city received over 50 applications for the job — a good sign.
The city’s hired recruiter, Peckham & McKenney, will vet and present the applications to the council on June 26, and will make recommendations as to who should be selected to advance to the next phase of interviews. A full day of In-person interviews will be conducted on July 10, probably with an informal candidate meet and greet later that evening that would be open to the community.
Though your average Canbyite may not be overly familiar with the city administrator or what they do, it’s really an extremely important job. Though the mayor and City Council are the elected officials who enact ordinances, make policy decisions and set overall agendas for the city, it’s the city administrator who really runs things day to day.
Functioning much like the CEO of a corporation, the city administrator is charged with bringing the city council’s vision to life, while also doing or overseeing the background work and making recommendations on most of the decisions that come before them.
They also handle the personnel. The city administrator is one of only three jobs that are appointed by and report directly to the council (the other two being city judge and city attorney). The city administrator heads up all hiring, firing, promotions and disciplinary action that may otherwise be required for people who work for the city of Canby.
The city charter actually prohibits councilors from giving orders or direction to employees. It all has to go through the administrator.
This is particularly critical as the city is facing a number of retirements and other vacancies in critical departments in the coming year. This includes longtime City Recorder Kim Scheafer (“Shay-fur”) who announced Wednesday that she will soon be leaving to be closer to family and serve as recorder for the city of Lebanon.
The new city administrator will be largely in charge of filling these positions, and could thereby play a large role in helping shape the composition of the city’s police, planning and other vital departments for years to come.