Two weeks have passed since Gaston County Manager Jan Winters was forced to resign in a vote that put his elected bosses at odds with one another.
But the search for his permanent replacement won’t begin until next month, as county commissioners won’t meet again until July 30.
Because of that long layoff, Commission Chairman Mickey Price hopes to make some headway over the next three weeks. The county will likely hire a search firm to assist in the hunt for a new manager. Price hopes to hear a presentation from a finalist firm at the next meeting, so commissioners can potentially hire the company to begin looking.
Price directed Interim County Manager Phil Ponder to solicit corporate profiles, proposals and cost estimates from three search firms by the end of this week. Independently, each commissioner will review the proposals and then nominate one. The one that garners the most nominations will be called in to make a formal presentation at the next meeting, Price said.
“I didn’t want to wait until July 30 and not have anything done,” he said. “We’ll hear the presentation from that (nominated) firm on how they’d go about the search process, and barring any unforeseen thing, we’ll probably approve them.”
After a closed-session personnel meeting June 27 during which Winters was pressured to resign, he did so. Commissioners voted 4-1 to accept his decision, though two commissioners walked out and refused to participate in the discussion.
Ponder initially told commissioners he didn’t feel comfortable taking over as interim manager. But Price said that was due to “miscommunication” that has been cleared up. Ponder could not be reached for comment on the matter Wednesday.
Winters had been the county manager here more than 11 years. His annual salary was $171,030, and the severance package he walked away with had a total cash value of $222,694.
Price was also a commissioner when Winters was hired in 2002. He seemed to recall the county paid a search firm around $15,000 to conduct the search for a new manager then.
As of Wednesday, only one search firm had submitted a proposal for commissioners to review. Coleman Lew and Associates of Charlotte says it would charge the county 30 percent of the new county manager’s first-year compensation, including benefits.
Based on Winters’ base salary alone, as an example, that would cost the county about $51,000.
Whichever search firm is hired July 30, Price said he would like to receive some manager recommendations within two months after that. Commissioners will then review the resumes of the applicants and decide which ones to invite for interviews.
You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or twitter.com/GazetteMike.