Mayor Expects Internal Candidate For Interim City Manager

This week, the city of Wentzville moved a step closer to officially hiring Mike McDowell as City Administrator with a vote from the Board of Alderman. McDowell has been City Manager in Olivette since 2004.

"Wentzville's gonna get a top-notch City Manager, will no doubt flourish under his leadership," Olivette Mayor Arthur Merdinian told Patch late last week.

While he recognizes the fact that the move is a promotion for McDowell, Merdinian said council members were surprised and shocked.

"We're all disappointed," he said.

City Councilman Jean Antoine previously outlined to Patch the process council members will use to move forward.

Merdinian said the process would be a main source of conversation in an upcoming council work session. A priority will be naming an interim city manager, which Merdinian said would likely be an internal candidate because that person would be familiar with the city and would not need help getting brought up to speed on projects.

Olivette found McDowell locally when he was hired in 2004, but Merdinian expects the search for the full-time replacement to come from a broader territory. He adds that Olivette will likely examine how competitive the city is when it comes to salary and benefits, while noting that in this case, Wentzville is a larger city than Olivette.

Merdinian said residents will not notice a change in how the city functions during this process.