Town manager recruiter seeks community input

Bobbi Peckham of Peckham & McKenney presented to the town council the draft documents to advertise the town manager position in Moraga. All mostly agreed to the language proposed by the consultant, asking that reference to the salary of the current manager be removed. Council Member Jeanette Fritzky asked and got approval for the consultant to seek the public's input on the characteristics required for the position. An open meeting with Peckham, without the council members, is scheduled in the coming weeks.

The proposed advertising document opens with the description of Moraga as "a picturesque, affluent community tucked in the beautiful hillsides of San Francisco's East Bay. ..." Some council members were unhappy with the word "affluent," noting that the residents are mostly well-off, but that the town itself is poor. They asked that the now legendary qualifier for Moraga since its incorporation as "minimal government," be properly highlighted in the document.

Concerns over financial constraints peppered the entire Oct. 11 discussion with Peckham. Council Member Kymberleigh Korpus asked if Peckham had considered recruiting graduating students. The consultant responded that Moraga needed to hire someone with at least 10 years of public administration experience and that hiring a recent graduate would mean that department heads would spend a lot of their time training the new person.

Peckham detailed her recruiting process, based on years of experience and networking with professionals with potential who could fill the role in Moraga.

The council members also asked that the compensation of the current town manager, $202,800, not be specified in the document, but that reference be made to a remuneration commensurate with the person's experience.

The discussion seemed to underscore that the council would like to see a non-town-manager candidate who may want to move upward, and who would be willing to sacrifice some of the remuneration in order to do that.

When asked about his recommendation, Town Manager Robert Priebe suggested that the person chosen also have experience in emergency preparedness.

Peckham will meet with the different department heads; Council Member Jeanette Fritzky asked that she also meet with the community to get input. The council suggested opening a meeting session where residents could come and share their vision for the next town manager with the consultant. Residents are invited to meet with Peckham anytime between 4:30 and 7 p.m. Nov. 7 in the Mosaic Room at the Hacienda de las Flores. Residents unable to come can reach the consultant via email at bobbi@peckhamandmckenney.com.

The timeline for the recruitment is tight: the filing deadline for candidates is Nov. 27, the preliminary interviews will be held on Dec. 5 and 6 with a list of recommended candidates given to the council by Dec. 13. Peckham plans for the finalists' interview process to take place in early January 2018.



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