City Council declines hire of new city manager

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

After one candidate withdrew from consideration and interviews of the remaining two, the Fernley City Council on Wednesday rejected Mayor Neal McIntyre’s motion to appoint Dawn Collins as the new city manager.

The Council is now back at the beginning of the process to hire a city manager for the third time in less than a year.

Candidate Michael Toombs withdrew from consideration last Monday, and on Wednesday the council interviewed Collins, the Town Administrator/Clerk of the Town of Palmer Lake, Colo. who has also been an administrator in a pair of small cities in Wisconsin, and George Zoukee, a self-employed real estate investor who has served as the Associate Administrator for the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration, Director of Finance for Transportation Corridor Agencies in Irvine, Calif. and treasurer of the New York City Municipal Water Finance Authority.

Both candidates were asked a list of 15 questions, four of which were provided to them in advance, and the rest which they were expected to answer in the spur of the moment. Human Resources Director Jackie Moxley explained to the candidates that format allowed the council to judge how well the candidates presented both prepared and unprepared answers.

After the interviews, the council adjourned for a break and a legal briefing. When they returned, McIntyre proposed Collins as his appointment. But the vote to ratify his appointment failed, with council members Fran McKay and Stan Lau in favor, but Albert Torres, Felicity Zoberski and Ryan Hanan opposed.

Now McIntyre and the council must start the recruitment process over again. As part of that, they must also decide whether they s=use the same search process that yielded the 10 applicants they received this time, whether Moxley will lead the search, or whether they will hire a search firm to recruit and vet candidates.