82 applicants for Fort Smith’s three top positions, two months left until fully staffed

Fort Smith City Administrator Carl Geffken released a list of all applicants for the three open positions of human resource director, utilities director and police chief following Tuesday night’s (Aug. 2) Fort Smith Board of Directors meeting.

According to Geffken’s handouts, there are 10 applicants for utilities, 39 for human resource, and 33 for police chief. Maj. Dean Pitts is serving as the interim Fort Smith police chief. His name was not included on Geffken’s updated list of applicants. Bob Roddy of Burns & McDonnell is serving as temporary utilities director. As of Tuesday, the city had not provided bio info on the applicants.

Geffken said in comments to Talk Business & Politics after the meeting that Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman would go through the 82 names to help narrow down the finalists and that not all of the names received would be interviewed. In all, Geffken said he expects to have the positions filled in two months because of the time it will take to solicit outside expertise, formulate interview committees, and arrange for dates to speak with the chosen finalists.

“The final decision will be mine,” Geffken said.

In emails between Geffken and other city officials obtained by Talk Business & Politics prior to Tuesday’s meeting, salary ranges were revealed for the three positions. Human resource director will pay between $64,390 and $101,280 per year and will offer a car allowance of $450 per month. The utilities director position is listed as between $68,864 and $108,380. A car allowance will be available to the chosen candidate, but the amount was not specified in the emails.

On May 24, Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman wrote that there is also a “Deputy Director of Engineering & Engineering Technology” position in the Utilities Department that is vacant.

“If we have someone that is nearly qualified for the Director position that doesn’t end up as the successful candidate, we still may have a spot for them,” Dingman said.

Pay range for the police chief position is listed at between $68,864 and $108,380 with a $450 per month car allowance and benefits. However, HR Coordinator Lindsey Kaelin said in one of the emails that “Majors start at $71k so it will need to be more than that.”

PAY GRADES AND PROCESSES
Geffken – whose first day as the City Administrator was May 9 following former Administrator Ray Gosack’s abrupt retirement in July 2015 – asked Kaelin to explain the city’s salary practices when hiring new candidates. Kaelin said in a May 26 email that most positions are hired in at entry, but “in the past when filling upper level positions, special consideration can be made to bring someone in up to midpoint.”

She continued: “When doing so, we try to keep in mind the issue of internal equity and review the pay of others in the same or similar positions before making a decision. While the police and fire chiefs are assigned a pay grade of 23, they don’t completely fall into that pay scale. Like the city administrator there is no set pay range for the police and fire chiefs.”

Phil Christensen was announced as the new fire chief on July 14 and was hired internally at his existing pay of $84,500. His last pay increase came in November 2015 when he accepted the assistant fire chief position.

All jobs are graded using software by DB Compensation. From that information, Kaelin uses the job description to answer questions in the program. Those responses are then graded.

“The score from that software depends on what pay grade they (employees) fall under,” Kaelin said to Geffken, who replied that it was “good to hear that we have an impartial system that determines the salary range.”

At Tuesday’s meeting, the Board of Directors oversaw its lightest agenda of the year approving three rezoning requests and the consent agenda without opposition. On the consent agenda, the Board approved the name Grizzly Field for the softball field at Martin Luther King Jr. Park and Buzz Wood Press Box for the facility’s press box. The latter was named after the late Buzz Wood Sr. and Buzz Wood Jr., two longtime Fort Smith residents and mentors at the Fort Smith Boys and Girls Club.

Also, the Board formally accepted $35,528 in donations from Firehouse Subs and Shared Services Center for the purchase of a hydraulic rescue spreader and pump ($20,533) and a digital fire extinguisher trainer ($14,995) for the city’s fire department.