McComb Mayor Zach Patterson has begun his search for a new city administrator.
Patterson told the board of selectmen Tuesday that he is advertising the job “on a worldwide basis” to find the next administrator, using the Internet and the employment Web site CareerBuilder.com.
He expects to be able to start reviewing applications within a month.
The CareerBuilder ad began appearing Wednesday, listing Ridgeland-based DelKen Group, a human resources consulting group, as the agent for the city.
The ad identifies the job’s location only as South Mississippi, but gives a McComb zip code of 39648.
Qualifications for the job include a four-year degree in public administration, political science, or business management in a related field, with at least five years experience as a municipal administrator.
The job summary says the city administrator “performs high level administrative, technical and professional work in directing and supervising the administration of City government. Exercises supervision over all municipal employees either directly or through department heads.”
A starting salary is not listed, but the new city administrator will make less money than his or her predecessors.
Patterson told the selectmen that he plans to reduce the city administrator’s salary from its current $80,000 a year to a starting salary of $65,000 a year, which he said is comparable to the salaries of administrators for cities the size of McComb.
“When I look at the salary of city administrators of cities of our sort, our salary is way bloated — it’s on the high side,” Patterson said. “I think personally that’s too high.”
Patterson said he also believes the salaries of other city department heads are out of line with cities comparable in size to McComb.
“We need to adjust that,” he said. “It’s a budget matter, it’s an efficiency matter, it’s a fairness and equity matter. I think we need to adjust those salaries in line with cities and municipalities our size. It helps with the budget.”
He said salary changes would be made as positions become vacant.
“That will simply mean that there may be — until natural attrition takes place — that the city administrator will be making less money than his subordinates, the ones who report directly to him, and I will submit to you that that’s OK until we can adjust out,” Patterson said.
Patterson added that he would not ask the selectmen to cut the salary of any employee while they are working for the city.
“But we need to make these adjustments while we have vacancies,” he said.
Patterson also said he plans to establish a 12- or 13-member committee of city residents to review the applications for city administrator and make a non-binding recommendation of the top three candidates for city administrator.
Even though a committee is not specified in the city charter, he said, “What I would like to do is have some kind of fair way where we can get input from those citizens — especially citizens who have been around a while and have an understanding of how we do business, and even those who may not have an understanding — so they can participate in the process.”
That way, Patterson said, “I’m not coming over as I’m going to pluck and put someone in that position.”
He said the committee was another way toward professionalism and “making sure our force is a professional force.”
Patterson invited the selectmen to offer suggestions or recommend members for the committee.
“If not, I will put together a committee of 12 to 13 citizens that I consider a cross-section and a good representation of the population that we serve to sit on that board and make the top three final selection,” he said, adding that he would present the top candidates to the board “and you can ask questions at that particular time.”
