Vote expected Tuesday on new South Lake Tahoe city manager; Candidates question timing

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The City Council will be voting to hire Frank Rush as the new South Lake Tahoe City Manager during their Tuesday, October 16 meeting.

Rush, 49, who has been Emerald Isle, N.C. town manager since 2001, was one of five candidate finalists interviewed for the job after the City Council hired a recruiting firm on April 17, 2018. Dirk Brazil, the interim SLT city manager, said the process has been a fair one with extensive work between the City's human resources department and the recruiter. Rush was a unanimous choice by the City Council.

The first search by the recruiter didn't result in the desired candidate list so a second, broader search was initiated. There several other communities looking for a city manager in California and across the state with Palo Alto, Calif., just hiring a new manager at $356,000 a year with $4,000 for housing a month along with other benefits.

"Any of the five finalists would have been a good fit," said Brazil. "Frank is highly ethical and he is a real pro - knows forward and backwards the skills of being a city manager - and will hit the ground running."

If approved, Rush and his wife will be moving to South Lake Tahoe with their two teenage sons, both of whom will be headed to South Tahoe High School.

Rush oversaw a budget in Emerald Isle that grew from just over $5M when he was hired to $10M this past year. The oceanside resort community is currently cleaning up after Hurricane Florence. He was commended for his work in keeping the community informed through several different channels about the hurricane.

According to the Carteret News-Times (Emerald Isle's newspaper), the town's mayor pro tem said he was sad to see Rush leave their community and called him "an exceptional young man: and that South Lake Tahoe will be fortunate to have him.

The hiring of Rush has become a campaign issue but Brazil hopes the candidates get to know Rush and welcome him into the community and into city government. In two weeks it will be known who the next Council will be though they don't take the oath of the new office until the end of the year.

The City just followed the same exact process in finding their new city attorney. The recruiting firm was hired and a search got underway. There were no comments on that process but there are several comments being made about the city manager process, mainly due to the proximity to the election on November 6 where there are three council seats open.

"I must say I am surprised to say the least that the Council is so determined to hire a city manager two weeks before the voters select three council members," said candidate and former Mayor Hal Cole. He said that Rush's base salary offer of $200,000 is 50 percent higher than his current one and that he was "confused as to why the Council is planning on binding the City to a five-year contract."

Candidate, and former Councilman Bruce Grego said there had been a lack of transparency in the hiring process. "The first time I heard of this candidate for city manager was in a recent news article. There has been no vetting by the Council," said Grego.

Both Grego and candidate Tamara Wallace said they felt the community should have met the candidate prior to being offered a job.

"The process hasn’t been open and fair to all concerned," said Wallace. "In years past members of the public as well as employees of the city have been invited to be on interview panels."

"The selection of and the directions to a city manager are a large part of the primary responsibilities of a council," added Wallace in stating the appointment should wait.

"This is fiscally irresponsible as a new council should be making this decision, to back out of the contract could cost hundreds of thousands, something they should have learned with their dealings of the previous city manager," said candidate Cody Bass. "The only way that this makes any sense is that they are trying to hold clout with the new city manager."

On Tuesday, the five-year contract up for vote includes the salary, $500 a month car allowance, medical benefits, $150 a month phone allowance and up to $5,000 moving expenses. If terminated, the City would pay Rush one-year's salary, a standard termination clause in a ranking city official's contract.

All five members of the Council have been involved in each step of the hiring process, including three up for re-election, Mayor Wendy David, Mayor Pro-tem Tom Davis and Councilman Austin Sass.

"Our Council has followed this process (seeking, vetting down, interviewing and selecting a new City Manager) and as we have reached the conclusion, are extremely pleased with offering a position to our next City Manager," said David. "It has not been rushed at any point. We trust that whatever Council is elected will welcome this person warmly."

Tom Davis and Austin Sass both agreed the process had been a fair one. Davis has now had a part in the hiring of five city managers he said.

"I am glad we are going to have a permanent city manager since the departure of Nancy Kerry," added candidate Devin Middlebrook. "This has been a long process, I don't think the council is hiding anything. If elected to council I would look forward to working with our new city manager."