The Georgia-based firm has been hired by Kettering to help find a successor to longtime City Manager Mark Schwieterman before his contract expires at the end of the year.
“We would like to have someone in place by late fall so they could spend a little bit of time with Mark,” Kettering Mayor Peggy Lehner told the Dayton Daily News.
Lehner added that “we expect the level of search that we’re going to undergo is going to need plenty of time to find the best possible candidate.”
Slavin President Robert Slavin declined to discuss the issue, saying in an email that his firm has not yet started the search process. The company’s website did not include the job posting as of late Thursday and it does not yet have a date scheduled for it, according to the city.
Schwieterman, 57, has been Kettering city manager since 2006 and has worked there for 33 years, according to the city. His term as city manager and Don Patterson’s run as Kettering’s mayor overlapped for 15 years until Lehner replaced Patterson this year.
Slavin’s cover letter states his firm’s qualifications and history with the Buckeye State — in particular Southwest Ohio — are boosted by having an affiliate, former Hamilton County government official Dave Krings, in Cincinnati.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
“This proposal commits the highest level of our firm’s services,” according to Slavin’s letter. Krings “and I will manage and serve as the primary consultants for the project.”
The letter also states Krings’ proximity to the area will help “cause the project expense costs to be less than described in the proposal.”
Kettering City Council approved $30,000 in March to hire a recruiting firm for the search, according to records. The Slavin contract states the company’s compensation and expense reimbursement will not exceed $24,017.
Slavin’s clients include jurisdictions in California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas, according to its website. The firm also has recruited city manager prospects for Tipp City and led the search for a Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission executive director before Brian Martin was hired in 2013, records show.
The eventual new hire will replace one of the region’s longer-serving city managers. Schwieterman began working in Kettering’s finance department in 1989, later being promoted to tax manager, according to the city. He then became budget manager and later assistant city manager before succeeding Steve Husemann as Kettering’s top administrator.
Schwieterman earned a master’s degree in public administration and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Dayton.
KETTERING RECRUITING
Slavin Management Consultants of Georgia has been hired by Kettering to lead the recruiting of a new city manager. Among the Ohio cities and entities it has contracted with include: Amberley Village, Beavercreek, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority, Hamilton County, Lakewood, the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, Montgomery County, Shaker Heights, Tipp City, Upper Arlington and Wyoming.
SOURCE: Slavin Management Consultants
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