Waukesha restarts administrator search with new firm

June 21, 2012

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By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

June 21, 2012 0

Waukesha - After first moving back to square one in their search for Waukesha's next city administrator when the only contender declined the job offer, city officials now are starting anew with a recruiting firm.

The Human Resources Committee on Wednesday agreed to seek Common Council approval to end the city's contract with the Florida-based consulting firm of Colin Baenziger & Associates and turn to another, Voorhees Associates of Deerfield, Ill.

Donna Hylarides Whalen, the city's human resources director, said Baenziger offered three options to the committee after it was unable to agree on any other candidate among the finalists. The committee's top choice, a city administrator from Grand Rapids, Minn., withdrew his application after he was interviewed and selected for the job.

Whalen said Baenziger offered to again advertise for applicants nationally, to change the approach to recruiting a candidate or to turn the job over to another firm of the city's choosing. The committee chose the third, provided the Common Council agrees.

The committee and Baenziger settled on a $5,000 fee of the $20,500 approved contract for work done and will ask that Voorhees be paid up to $15,500 to complete the new search, keeping the overall cost the same.

The principal in Voorhees Associates previously was responsible for the search for Waukesha's police chief, the city's last administrator, Lori Luther, who left last August for a job as Peoria County (Ill.) administrator, and other managers, Whalen said.

While the council had anticipated confirming the new city administrator June 26, that timetable has been set back at least a couple of months, Whalen said.

About Laurel Walker

Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.