BLYTHEWOOD –Town Council announced at its workshop last Friday the preliminary criteria for the desirable candidate for a permanent Town Administrator, and it named a committee of four Blythewood residents to make recommendations for the post.
After a fair amount of wrangling over age, experience, relocation and education, Council settled mainly on criteria suggested by Councilman Bob Massa, who recently retired after nine years as Finance Director for the City of Forest Acres and 17 years in city and county government. Preliminary criteria includes relocation to the Town, four to six years’ experience, a degree in public administration or a related field and a salary range of $70,000 – $90,000 annually.
Councilman Bob Mangone will head up the selection committee, which will rank the applicants and recommend their three or four top choices to Council. Council members agreed they would like to have someone in place by the beginning of the summer.
Each Council member appointed one selection committee member. For the most part they selected from their own neighborhoods. Mayor J. Michael Ross chose Joseph Richardson, a Cobblestone neighbor. Richardson, a newcomer to the town government, is an attorney and manages his family’s construction company. He was recently appointed to the Board of Zoning Appeals. Massa chose Carolyn Taylor, a resident of Oakhurst neighborhood and the only woman on the committee. Tom Utroska of Cobblestone Park chose Malcolm Gordge, a resident of Ashley Oaks and a member of the Town’s Planning Commission. Mangone of Cobblestone Park chose Mike Switzer, also a resident of Cobblestone, who Mangone said he felt was the leader of the Town’s business community as chairman of the Blythewood Chamber of Commerce.
Council members said the job will be posted on several websites including those of the S.C. Municipal Association and the S.C. Association of Counties. Council is expected to finalize the selection criteria at their next meeting at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 17, at the Manor.
