City Manager Finalist Interview: Vince Pastue

In the second of , Troy City Council and administrators interviewed Farmington City Manager Vince Pastue Wednesday afternoon at Troy City Hall. .

Pastue is one of five candidates for the position of Troy City Manager, which has been held by  following the departure of  earlier this year. The other four candidates are: , Oakland Township Manager; , Marine City Manager; , Tittabawassee Township Manager; and , Troy Director of Economic and Community Development.

5 questions for Vince Pastue

Troy City Council members and Interim City Manager Mike Culpepper took turns asking questions for nearly 90 minutes Monday morning. Here are five questions and their answers from Pastue.

Q: Mayor Pro Tem Maureen McGinnis asked: We are hoping that you can provide us with an example of a time when you believed Council may have been wrong. Tell what the issue was, what you did and what end result was.

A: “There may be decisions I might disagree with. Our Planning Commission ... had a discussion about something as small as having chickens. ... At the end of the day, they turned down allowing chickens in residential area. I can’t say that was necessarily a bad decision. I maybe would have allowed it ... but there was no shortage of discussion and information and dialogue. ... You know what? I may have disagreed with it, but I’m not the one who was elected.”

Q: Councilman Jim Campbell asked: Give examples of different types of negotiations you’ve done.

A: “I’ve been part of labor negotiations ... going back since I started in Clare 20 years ago. The most important thing is to go into the negotiations fully prepared. ... I’ve always used that as a start for the process, and from there look to what I think would be reasonable outcomes based on what other communities are paying comparable employees and bring that to city council in the form of closed session to develop a type of strategy. ... I think it’s important to provide reasonable wages and reasonable benefits ... to attract and maintain good people.” 

Q: Councilman Doug Tietz asked: What woud be some challenges for you in relocating to Troy?

A: “My intent would be to be here. I think it’s important to be in the community in which you're employed, and certainly if you’d have a storm or some immediate need, driving 40 minutes on a good day is not acceptable. ... I do think that whenever a storm comes through, whether it’s a winter storm or a thunderstorm ... it’s good to be there and close by.”

Q: Councilman Dane Slater asked: What do you see is your role as City Manager?

A: “The manager has to recognize their role in relationship to the council is that you have a pretty strong charter ... but the manager is responsible for operating the day-to-day affairs with the city. ... Ultimately, City Council is the one that has to make those big decisions. ... The City Manager is an ambassador for the city.”

Q: What most interests you about Troy?

A: “I just think it’s got this very family oriented feel and orientation about it. I very much like where I’m at in Farmington, and this is very similar, larger scale. I thought it was very interesting touring with the candidates yesterday. ... It spills over. Part of that family orientation is that it’s safe, there’s a lot of programmed activities ... you’ve got a tremendous mix of res, industrial, office, commercial, retail. I think that family comfort, if I had to pick one factor that is striking ... it’s that.”

City Manager finalist interview schedule

Five interviews are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. The interviews are televised live on the government channel WTRY (Channel 10 for WOW customers and Channel 17 for Comcast customers) and streamed commercial-free on the city's website. Here is the schedule:

Wednesday, August 29

• 9-11 a.m.:  James Creech
• 1-3 p.m.: Vincent Pastue 
• 3:30-5:30 p.m.: John Gabor

Thursday, August 30

• 9-11 a.m.: Brian Kischnick
• 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.: Mark Miller
• 3 p.m.: City Council Deliberations followed by Public Comment

More candidate information is available on the City of Troy website. 

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