Libby begins search for city administrator

Libby’s new city administrator will work less in the field and play more of an administrative role than the current supervisor of city services, according to Mayor Doug Roll.

“What we want in the position is not quite a city manager, but a step down from that,” Roll said. “We deleted some things and added some things (from the current supervisor of city services position), but it’s pretty similar.”

The city began advertising this week for a city administrator to replace Dan Thede, who is retiring this fall after 15 years in his position and 24 years as a city employee.

As supervisor of all city departments except the police, Thede is trained and certified to fill in for department heads. He has a license in wastewater and water treatment and a commercial driver’s license.

The new city administrator will not be required to have those certifications.

“They’ll still work directly with individual department heads and supervisors,” Roll said, “but won’t be required to take their place if they’re gone.”

Roll and Thede don’t see the change as a problem and can only recall a few times when Thede had to step in for a department head.

The new hire will “still be responsible for helping to coordinate projects and daily scheduling,” Thede said, “but more of the daily work will be with individual supervisors. Currently a lot of that responsibility is mine.”

The city council drafted a job description that requires the administrator to spend more time writing grants, as well as work with the city clerk to prepare and watch over the city budget.

“Dan could write grants,” Roll said, “but with all the other stuff he had to do it was rough. This position will be less hands-on.”

Roll said that the new job description brings Libby more in synch with other cities and towns. It also takes into consideration the city’s budget – the city opted not to pay the large salary of a city manager or an engineer. Though a licensed engineer is preferable, Thede said, the city decided to just require engineering coursework and experience, which Thede has.    

Time is ticking away. If the city gets a quality pool of applicants from the get-go, that will still leave less than two months for Thede to train the new hire, since his last day is Sept. 30.

“The intention is to run (the advertisement) for 30 days,” Thede said, “and then see what we have for applications and go from there.”