Nearly four weeks after the application deadline for three vacant department head positions, city officials have yet to nail down the number of applicants who meet the minimum requirements for each.
Nonetheless, the city’s hiring committee met for about a half-hour behind closed doors on Tuesday to discuss the candidates for chief operations officer, chief financial officer and information technologies director. Mayor Keith Gaskin said after the meeting he hopes to identify three finalists for each position by the end of the committee’s planned meeting Monday.
“This is really our first time to discuss (the applicants) as a group,” Gaskin said Tuesday.
Former COO David Armstrong retired in June, former CFO Deliah Vaughn resigned over the summer to take a job with the city of West Point and former IT Director Greg Drake resigned earlier this year.
The city fielded more than 100 applications for the three positions by the Dec. 3 deadline. Human Resources Director Pat Mitchell told the Dispatch Tuesday that 45 people had applied for the CFO job, 40 for COO and 37 for the IT director, which is more than what she had originally reported right after the deadline passed.
She said “four or five” people applied for both the CFO and COO positions.
“Some of them might have had a degree in economics, but not necessarily in accounting,” she said. “Likewise some might not necessarily have the operations management experience (for the COO role).”
Mitchell said it would be up to the committee to decide what double applicants to consider for what position. The committee — made up of Mitchell, Gaskin, Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Taylor Stewart, Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene, Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard and Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco — will meet again on Monday to begin whittling down the applications.
A time for that meeting has not yet been set, Mitchell said.
Gaskin said the committee “had a good meeting” on Tuesday but that the discussion had been fairly general. The applications, especially for two positions, looked promising, he said.
“We have some strong candidates for CFO and IT,” he said. “The COO is going to be a harder position to fill.”
Greene agreed that there were some good candidates in the pool.
“It looks like there are some strong candidates, but it’s still early in the process,” he said. “There are some especially strong ones for CFO and the tech position, but I’m not ready to comment further than that. We’ll just have to see if they meet our needs.”
All three of the positions are currently being filled in some capacity. Local businessman Mark Alexander Jr., has served as interim COO since July.
Columbus Light and Water Controller Mike Bernsen — a former CFO for the city — is working on a volunteer basis in the CFO’s office until a permanent replacement can be hired. Former IT Director Greg Drake is continuing in the role as a consultant until his position is filled.
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