New City Manager hired for South Lake Tahoe

The South Lake Tahoe City Council today voted unanimously to hire Frank Rush as their new city manager starting December 5, 2018.

The 49-year-old Rush gave his notice to the Emerald Isle, NC town commissioners, resigning the position he'd held for 17 years in the small oceanside resort community.

Rush has signed a five-year contract worth $200,000 in annual base salary, a one-time $5,000 moving expense, $500 monthly car allowance and a $150 monthly phone allowance.

"This Council has put in many, many hours to find the very best candidate," said SLT Mayor Wendy David prior to the Council's unanimous vote to approve Rush for the job. "Hiring a city manager is one of the most important jobs a city council has and we have not taken this lightly."

Councilwoman Brooke Laine wanted to make a statement and correct a few items on Rush's contract before the final vote.

"Our community never had a chance to understand what happened to Nancy Kerry (the former city manager who resigned earlier this year)," said Laine. "Her accomplishments were plentiful. Councils separate with city managers often, it's the nature of the process."

"We never anticipated we’d be making a decision three weeks before an election," added Laine. "We thought hiring the city manager would come before hiring the city attorney. I apologize to the community that they didn’t get to meet this candidate first. The community is just asking for transparency. We haven’t earned that yet.”

With that said, Laine said she'd welcome Rush with open arms, the same sentiment was expressed by the other four councilmembers.

The long process to find a replacement for Kerry began in March when a recruitment consulting company was hired to find candidates for the job. In June, 43 candidates had replied and the consultant vetted everyone, brought that total down to ten. The Council then vetted them and decided to “we only want the best” and asked the firm to go back out. They came back August 26 with 31 candidates, reviewed them in September with face-to-face interviews on Sept. 18. Of those possible city managers, six were invited to come to South Lake Tahoe for an interview after which they chose Frank Rush, "an outstanding candidate from a tourist community in NC," said the Council. "We are in no way rushing this process, it has been very methodical."

Rush is married with two teenaged sons who will be attending South Tahoe High School.