ODESSA, Texas — The City of Odessa is ready to begin receiving applicants for the city manager position.
On Tuesday afternoon, the benchmark committee -- which consists of the Odessa City Council -- finalized a thorough job description highlighted by integrity and accountability.
The T2 Professional Consulting firm created the description based on discussions that took place on March 14th, and Odessa Mayor Javier Joven said they were satisfied with the results.
“I think this council is all on the same page," said Mayor Joven. "We were commended for being ahead of schedule, being on task and…actually having a pulse in the community. That means all members of the council are listening to the studies, to the employees and to the community.”
As the search for a new city manager continues, the timeline has been shortened once more.
The completed job description for the position included the minimum qualifications.
“Definitely somebody with a four-year degree," said Mayor Joven. "Someone with institutional knowledge in – whether it’s budgeting, finance, things of that nature or something equivalent into the private sector – so we’re not going to really narrow it, we want a broad description so we’ll be able to have a broader pool of candidates to pull from.”
With the job ready to be posted, the firm will now be tasked with advertising it for candidates.
“We will handle developing a brochure," said Mica Lunt, a representative for the T2 Professional Consulting firm, during a presentation to the council on Tuesday. "They provide a whole host of information about the city, and it’s designed to do exactly what you all [the council] were talking about earlier of marketing to applicants, so we will prepare all of that utilizing the job description you [the council] just approved.”
The preference remains hiring talent from the State of Texas, and the position will certainly be posted within the Texas Municipal League.
“We are part and we are members of the Texas Municipal League," said Mayor Joven. "I’m president of Texas Municipal League – Region 4, and so, there’s always a huge amount of networking, so why wouldn’t we take advantage of it since we’re members."
The council also decided to create a salary range of $170,000-$250,000 for the city manager position for when eventual negotiations begin.
The council has been aggressive in meeting deadlines throughout the process, and as long as they get plenty of applicants as they expect to, the position could be filled as early as June.