Sheldon, Iowa — The Sheldon City Council has selected their new City Manager.
In a late afternoon meeting Wednesday, the Council announced that Sam Kooiker, the current Cherokee City Administrator, has been offered the Sheldon position, at a salary of $105-thousand per year.
Kooiker is a native of Boyden who worked at both Joyce’s and Hy-Vee in Sheldon during his teen years.
The Sheldon City Council says they expect Kooiker will accept the position in Sheldon. If so, his contract will be ratified by resolution at the next Council meeting.
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Posted at 9:40 am 10/10/2018
Sheldon, Iowa — It appears as though the search for a new Sheldon City Manager may be drawing to a conclusion.
The Sheldon City Council is scheduled to meet in special session this afternoon at 4:30, with just one major item on their agenda, that being the consideration of a potential offer to the preferred candidate for city manager.
The three finalists were in Sheldon this past weekend for in-person interviews. The Council met Saturday afternoon, following the interviews, to discuss the interview results, but were unable to reach a consensus. They met again in a marathon-length special session Monday evening, after which they authorized the mayor and search firm to negotiate an employment contract with their preferred candidate. That candidate’s identity has, so far, not been released.
Sheldon has been without a city manager since former Manager Sean Hutchison left the job this past summer to take a similar position in south Texas. Hutchison served as Sheldon’s City Manager for just 14-months.
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Posted 11:02am, 10/8/2018
Sheldon, Iowa — The field of candidates for the new Sheldon City Manager has been narrowed, potentially to one. But there has been no announcement yet as to who it will be.
After they met with the candidates on Saturday, the Sheldon City Council met in special session later that day, with the purpose of directing the mayor and the City’s search firm about extending an employment offer to the candidate they selected for the position. But that didn’t happen, and the meeting was adjourned, with a plan to meet on Monday night to continue the discussion.
At that meeting on Monday night, the council immediately went into closed session after being called to order at 7:00. The council came out of closed session at 9:55 p.m. and voted to authorize the mayor and consultant to negotiate with the preferred candidate. After the negotiations, the results will be brought back to the council for possible action.
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Posted Monday, October 8, 2018 at 11:02 a.m.:
Sheldon, Iowa — The Sheldon City Council has scheduled an emergency meeting for this evening (Monday, October 8, 2018), to continue the discussion they began Saturday afternoon following the wrap-up of formal interviews for the three finalists for the city manager position.
All three of the finalists were in town over the weekend. The trio were guests of honor at a public reception at the Crossroads Pavilion Friday night, then Saturday, they began the rounds of the formal interviews with panelists made up of city council members, City Senior Management personnel, and members of the Sheldon public. Following those interviews the council met in special session, and entered into a closed meeting for the purpose of discussing the interview results. The agenda for Saturday’s special meeting called for the council to direct the mayor and the City’s search firm about extending an employment offer to the candidate they selected for the position. Things didn’t go exactly as planned, however, with the council taking no action on the hiring of a new city manager.
The discussion on the city manager interviews will continue at tonight’s council meeting. Once again, the agenda for tonight’s meeting includes a closed session for the “Discussion of Interviews”, followed by an “Open Session for the Direction of Mayor and Consultants to Negotiate with Preferred Candidate.”
Tonight’s meeting will begin at 7:00 in Council Chambers at the Sheldon Community Services Center.
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Posted 7:55pm, 10/6/2018
Sheldon, Iowa — The final three candidates for Sheldon City Manager were in town Friday and Saturday for formal interviews.
The trio were guests of honor at a public reception at the Crossroads Pavilion Friday evening, then went through interviews Saturday with interview panels comprised of Sheldon council members, members of the City’s Senior Management Team, and a group of Sheldon citizens.
Following Saturday’s interviews, the Council met in special session to discuss the results of the interviews. That discussion was held during a closed session. After the closed session the council came back into open session. It had been thought that the Council might instruct the mayor and the search firm to extend a contract offer to one of the three candidates. However, they apparently were unable to reach a final decision during Saturday’s closed session, because when they returned to open session they failed to take any action.
It’s thought that the Council’s discussion on the city manager search may continue early next week.
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Original post 1:18 pm, 10/5/2018
Sheldon, Iowa — This is the weekend that the finalists for the Sheldon City Manager position will be in Sheldon for a public reception, and panel interviews.
The process of replacing former City Manager Sean Hutchison, who left in late June after fourteen months in the job, is coming close to completion. According to Sheldon Mayor Katricia Meendering, twenty-four people from sixteen states applied for the position, including twenty candidates who possess a Master’s Degree or higher. The City Council later winnowed that number down to the five finalists, three of whom will be in Sheldon this weekend.
From 7:00 to 8:30 Friday evening there is a public reception for the candidates at the Crossroads Pavilion Event Center in Sheldon.
On Saturday, the three finalists face interview panels comprised of Council members, Mayor Meendering, members of the City’s Senior Management team, as well as six Sheldon residents. The six include: Mary Wallinga; Lyle Kuiper; Wayne Barahona; Susan Rensink; Jeff Wagner; and Bob Hoogeveen. Meendering says the individual interview panels will be made up of representatives from all the groups we mentioned.
The Sheldon City Council is scheduled to meet in special session Saturday afternoon after the interviews are wrapped up, beginning at 1:30 pm for the sole purpose of the City Manager Interviews. They’ll hold that discussion in closed session. Following the closed session the council will enter open session for the purpose of directing the Mayor and Consultants to negotiate an employment agreement with the Preferred Candidate.
