Waterville council expected to name new city manager

WATERVILLE — Residents will likely learn Tuesday who their new city manager will be, with the City Council expected to vote to approve a candidate following an executive session.

The special meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at The Elm at 21 College Ave., with the city manager position the only item on the agenda.

Ten candidates from across the country applied for the job, which was vacated in December by Steve Daly, who resigned abruptly for what he called urgent, personal circumstances.

“We’ve all had an opportunity to ask this person why they want to be the city manager, and all the questions we had,” council Chairwoman Rebecca Green, D-Ward 4, said Monday. “We’re all very excited about this candidate and so it’s going to be an exciting night.”

Green said city councilors interviewed two people for the position and the candidates met with department heads.

“It was a national search,” she said. “We had some very good candidates to interview, and we think we have an amazing new city manager. We just need to make it official.”

Green said the City Council is expected to vote to go into executive session at the start of the meeting and then emerge, take questions or comments from the public and vote.

“I don’t anticipate we’ll be in session very long,” she said. “It should be relatively quick, but we do have a candidate that we want to make a final decision on and we expect to take a vote after that.”

She said the person would begin working for the city in July.

“We’ll be summarizing the terms after the executive session,” she said.

Acting City Manager Bill Post said Monday he believes the candidate on whom councilors are to vote Tuesday will be present for the meeting.

Asked about the length of the new city manager’s term, Post said that information is in the contract and will be discussed at the meeting.

The council voted Feb. 7 to hire Eaton Peabody Consulting Group of Augusta for $9,000 to conduct the city manager search.

Daly’s resignation in December came nearly two years into a three-year contract. He had earned $125,000 his first year and $130,000 the second year.

Daly, 75, did not respond at the time to multiple requests for comment on the reasons for his departure, and his severance agreement stipulated he not talk about the resignation. City officials would also not comment.

Post has served as acting city manager since Daly resigned. Post chose not to apply for the city manager’s spot, saying he preferred to remain in the assistant’s position.

The city manager is the chief administrative officer of the city, responsible to the City Council for the management of all city affairs as provided in the city charter.