Council to hire search firm to fill planning director opening

Nov. 15—The city will use a search firm at a cost of $40,000 to find a planning director, since none of the most recent applicants met all of the qualifications for the opening.

The Decatur City Council voted at last week's meeting to authorize Human Resources Director Richelle Sandlin to hire an executive recruiting firm to conduct what they hope is a quick search.

Decatur has been operating without a planning director since Michelle Gilliam-Jordan left in January 2009. Instead, the city chose to operate with a planning manager, who received lower pay than a director and who answered to the city director of development.

"For much of that time, we haven't had a person on staff with a planning background," Councilman Billy Jackson said last week. "We've had people step into that role and done really good jobs despite not having that specific background."

Jackson said he believes Decatur "lost ground" to neighboring communities because they had planners on staff with planning backgrounds and Decatur did not.

"Whether it's an event, an arena, a new neighborhood or a new subdivision, they play a role in all of this," Jackson said. "The name tells it all. They plan for and tell us which direction the neighborhood should move in, and not just in roads and things of that nature."

Jackson said a planning director will be a part of everything that happens in the city.

"It's critical if we want to grow as quickly as we possibly can with controlled growth that you want and desire," Jackson said. "It's critical we have someone on staff who can lead us in that direction."

Karen Smith retired as planning manager in 2020. Lee Terry filled the opening for three years but since then the city has had trouble filling the vacancy. It did two job searches this year for a planning manager but ran into several obstacles.

Sandlin told the council in September that pay was an issue for some candidates while others were more interested in the "prestige" of the director position.

The position of planning manager has a minimum salary of $72,834 and maximum of $109,305. In September, the City Council approved changing the manager position to that of a director, increasing the salary to a minimum of $87,523 and maximum of $133,178.

Sandlin said her department conducted local and national searches as part of recruitment efforts for a planning director.

"We wanted to make sure we exhausted all of our internal resources before we spend $40,000," she said.

However, she said they had issues with candidates "who either didn't fit or meet the experience requirements." The lack of an American Institute of Certified Planners certification has particularly been an issue, Sandlin said.

Sandlin said none of the 10 applicants during the posting period that ended Oct. 17 met all of the qualifications. Only one person had an AICP certification. She said one had the required education, which has been a problem because planning is an emerging field.

She said another qualification the applicants had trouble meeting is the requirement that they have 10 years of experience in the field.

"One met that experience qualification," Sandlin said. "No single candidate of the 10 met all three of these requirements."

Sandlin said she is recommending hiring an executive recruiter "because they have a broader reach than we do." She said they can get to those passive candidates — senior planners who aren't actively seeking jobs or are with other agencies.

She said her recommendation is they try the executive recruiter before interviewing any of the 10 in the Oct. 17 list of applicants.

Councilman Carlton McMasters asked Sandlin how long will it take to find a candidate, and she said it will likely be the end of January or first of February before they have a planning director in place.

"The recruitment cycle takes about three or four weeks to develop the (search) materials and get them out," Sandlin said. "We have to schedule interviews, and we have Thanksgiving and Christmas right in the middle of it all."

Council President Jacob Ladner agreed with her assessment. He said there was only one applicant with enough qualifications to be worth bringing in for an interview.

"I would certainly be willing to interview that person," Ladner said. "But I do think it's worth it to our citizens, current staff and others to have a broader search to make sure we're getting the best candidates for this critical position."

McMasters said he's "conflicted" over the decision to hire a search firm. He said he agrees with Ladner that there is one candidate he would interview.

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