By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
As former St. Joseph City Manager Bryan Carter leaves his position, the search for a new City Manager begins.
City Councilmember At Large Marty Novak says the city has approved working with a search firm out of Texas to find candidates for the job.
"They have a huge database of candidates and are connected with a lot of people, which is really what we need for something like this," Novak tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. "If we can have somebody come in that has the skills, the quality, and just really the whole package that Bryan had, I would love that."
Carter is leaving St. Joseph after working 13 years at City Hall, first in the city legal department, then as city manager. Carter will be moving to Kansas City.
Novak admits Carter's shoes might be hard to fill, describing the former city manager as having a unique mix of competence and humility
"He was a very humble man, but he's a very, very knowledgeable person, but he doesn't want to impress you, he doesn't need to impress you, he knows his stuff and he knows what’s going on," Novak says. "And it was such a blessing to our city to have him for the period of time we did have him."
Novak says currently there is no timeline to find the person for the job, but says it typically takes around six months to get candidates.
"We have not met with the search firm that's going to be doing this yet, but I know that they're drafting all the criteria for the search and what the process is going to be," Novak explains.
Novak says the city will make sure stakeholders and the public do have input on what's going on.
In the interim city officials have appointed Clint Thompson as City Manager.