Council passes on city manager candidates

After a month of advertising the city manager opening in Sisters, screening applicants, narrowing the field to three finalists, and a week of panels, receptions, tours, and a final interview in front of the City Council, the Council decided not to offer the position to any one of the three candidates – Ron Tinseth, Keith Witcosky, or Simon Kim.

The City will begin the process over again.

Following the Council’s executive session on Friday morning, November 18, Mayor Michael Preedin issued a statement:

“Thank you to all the final applicants, the volunteers, and community members on all of our panels to evaluate the finalists. It’s been a very difficult decision, but the Sisters City Council has unanimously agreed to not offer the position to any of our finalist applicants. We appreciate their going through the rigorous process, and coming to town. Unfortunately, even with all the impressive credentials, none were suited to the extent we would like to have for our next city manager.

“Unfortunately, we’ll have to go through this process again, and we will certainly be working with our consultant, Jensen Strategies, late this year, and early next year and you’ll probably be seeing more news on this issue in The Nugget and in the community, and we’ll go through this process one more time to find the person who is supposed to be our next city manager.”

Outgoing Council President Nancy Connolly offered, “I think the community’s residents, the City Council, and the City staff deserve the best city manager possible to meet our needs at this time. I have no regrets that we decided to not offer the position to any of the candidates at this time.”

The candidate pool was small this time around, according to Erik Jensen of Jensen Strategies, the City’s search firm.

“The 2022 Sisters city manager recruitment process resulted in seven candidates who submitted complete applications,” said Jensen. “While this number is considerably smaller compared to the 41 complete applications for the position in 2017, it is reflective of the current job market experience across the country and typical for city manager recruitments in Oregon at this time.”