The field for three open city positions has been narrowed down to four candidates per position, according to officials.
The hiring committee met for about an hour Monday afternoon to take the next steps towards hiring a chief operations officer, chief financial officer and information technology director. Former COO David Armstrong retired in June 2021, former CFO Deliah Vaughn resigned over the summer to take a job with the City of West Point, and IT Director Greg Drake resigned last year.
The committee — made up of Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Taylor Stewart, Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene, Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard and Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco — met last week to begin the process of winnowing down the more than 100 applications received for the three positions.
Human Resources Director Pat Mitchell told The Dispatch after Monday’s meeting that she would begin the process of setting up Zoom interviews with the candidates this week.
No formal weed-out process was done for applicants who did not meet the minimum requirements, she said. Each member of the committee was given a spreadsheet of all the applicants with their educational background and work experience.
“It was fairly easy to weed out who didn’t qualify for the CFO, because they didn’t have an accounting degree,” she said. “For the COO we were looking for a degree in business, somebody who maybe had some municipal government experience or who had a degree in public administration. For the (IT director), we looked for a degree in information technology. A lot of those applicants had degrees in cybersecurity.”
Gaskin said he wanted the process to move forward now as quickly as possible, but it was unlikely a candidate would be in place before next month.
“We hope to have some offers made this month, in the next couple of weeks,” he said. “But you have to factor in there that if you make an offer they are all in current positions, which they would have to give proper resignation time for. It’s more likely to have them in place in February than in January.”
Gaskin said he wasn’t sure if the city would still hold interviews in public, as had been previously discussed.
“That is what the council voted to do,” he said. “We had that discussion today, there was some debate inside the committee on whether those should be public or not. We are going to look back and see exactly what the motion was. There are some concerns about whether it would be appropriate to interview them in public like that. It is still a possibility.”
“We came together today and narrowed down the pool of applicants in each category,” Beard told The Dispatch after the meeting. “Everything was perfect.”
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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