City Begins Search for New City Manager, Appoints Cox as Interim City Manager

With current City Manager Nancy Huston set to take on a new job as Solano County’s assistant administrator, the Dixon City Council took some steps Tuesday to find her replacement and temporarily fill her position.

During Tuesday’s meeting, the City Council voted unanimously to initiate the Request for Proposal (RFP) process of finding an executive agency that will assist the council with recruiting a city manager and placed Dixon Police Chief Jon Cox into the interim role of city manager.

Huston's last day as Dixon's city manager is on June 30. At the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting, the council bestowed a proclamation on Huston, honoring her for her years of service to the city.

Mayor Jack Batchelor read the proclamation, recognizing Huston’s achievements. Huston began working for the City of Dixon in July 2008 and since then has helped the city maintain strong relationships with city partners throughout Solano County; represented the city at numerous events; instituted several cost-saving measures for the city during tough economic times; increased transparency by use of the city’s web site to stream council meetings as well as archiving the meetings; was able to help secure a $3 million federal grant for a water well that will help kick off construction for the city’s Northeast Quadrant Project ; and hired three key senior staff positions including Dixon Police Chief Jon Cox, Fire Chief Aaron McAlister and City Finance and Director of Technology Jeremy Craig.

“It’s been a real privilege to be your city manager,” Huston said. “I’ve enjoyed working for this council and the previous councils. I’ve enjoyed working on the different community events, I really enjoyed the May Fair Parade, I really enjoyed that. I enjoyed going to the Tree Lighting Ceremony. This is truly a family community and there’s lots of sports activities.”

Huston recognized her staff, as well as her senior staff, for helping the city navigate through some tough economic times.

“I want to acknowledge my city employees, who I have asked to do a lot with fewer resources,” she said. “I got here and I gave everyone a pay cut, including myself.”

Huston pointed out that city furloughs she helped to institute are still in place as a cost-saving measure.

“I wish all of you the very best and I hope that the community and the council can focus on the big picture and make decisions that are long-term and that will provide a successful future for the City of Dixon,” Huston said.

The council voted unanimously to begin a Request for Proposal process to search for an executive search firm that will assist the city in hiring the new city manager.

The vote however, did not come without concerns.

Councilman Thom Bogue said he wanted to discuss the process of finding the city manager and figure out if they want to use an outside agency to recruit the new city manager. He said that the city could probably use Steve Johnson, director of human resources, to find the next city manager.

“I personally would like to see this particular item tabled until we have a chance to meet,” he said. “You look at internal promotion that can be looked at. We don’t always have to look at spending the money to find somebody.”

Vice Mayor Michael Ceremello also raised concerns.

“The RFP process for all it’s worth, I think that a lot of us were disenchanted with the last executive recruiter we had,” he said. “I have some of the same concerns that Mr. Bogue has that we haven’t discussed exactly what we are looking for so hiring an executive recruiter before we come to a conclusion as to what it is we want to look for in a city manager, where we want to look for a city manager, is a little premature.”

Mayor Jack Batchelor said that kicking off the RFP process is not a rush to judgment, given the six-month or more process that the search will take.

“I think what needs to be done is we need to get the ball rolling and get it out there,” Batchelor said. “And yeah Mr. Johnston can probably do some things that can save us money but, no offense to Mr. Johnston, he does not have the contacts out in the community … that a professional recruiter does.”

Ceremello said that he wanted a broad perspective of candidates, perhaps someone in the business community, and said that a recruiter may not have that range.

“I think we need to look outside of the box that has nothing do with the executive recruiter until he gets here, she gets here,” he said.

“If we find the right firm for us, they are going to find the right person for us,” Councilman Dane Besneatte said.

The council rejected a minute action that came along with the RFP minute action which would have established a subcommittee within the council consisting of the mayor and one other councilmember to screen the best three companies and present them to the council for further interviewing. Instead, each council member will have the opportunity to screen the candidates and come up with the best one.

In related action, the council appointed Dixon Police Chief Jon Cox to the interim position of city manager. Councilman Dane Besneatte said he had an initial concern that Cox would seek to become the permanent city manager, leaving a vacancy at the police chief position. But Besneatte said that after talking to Cox he was assured that Cox had no interest in becoming the permanent city manager.

The position calls for a wage increase for Cox based on a five percent increase over his base salary, which will raise his salary from $126,892 to $133,237 per year. Huston currently receives a salary of $162,500 and benefits of about $50,000 per year according to a staff report. The move will save the city $84,883 over Cox’s five-month commitment as interim city manager. Cox is to continue his position as police chief while taking on the full range of responsibilities of the city manager position, the staff report read.