Fort Smith board approves next steps in search for city administrator

Of the 43 applications received online for Fort Smith city administrator, eight have top municipal leadership experience. Of those, two have experience in a city the size of Fort Smith, and one of those is Acting City Administrator Jeff Dingman.

One of the 43 applicants was former Fort Smith Police Chief Nathaniel Clark, the city’s first African American police chief. He resigned in March 2019 after just a little more than two years in the role. At the time he said he was moving to Atlanta for a new job.

City Director Lee Kemp, liaison for the Fort Smith Board of Directors in the city administrator search, said the applicant pool was not what he had hoped for.

“I wish we would have saw more candidates that I thought had more experience and larger size of government positions,” Kemp said. “But at the same time this was sort of a let’s-see-what’s-there. I mean, we haven’t spent taxpayer dollars. We’ve mobilized what we have in house.”

The Fort Smith board on Aug. 19 voted to have the city’s human resources department post the job on the city’s website on Sept. 2, and keep the application window open through Oct. 16.

That action came more than eight months after the board fired Carl Geffken as city administrator in December 2024. Geffken was hired to be the city administrator in March 2016 with a salary of $175,000. His annual salary when he was fired was $204,513. Dingman was named acting city administrator following Geffken’s dismissal and continues in that role. Dingman, who was on the short list of candidates when Geffken was hired in 2016, has again applied for the job.

In addition to Dingman, following are the applicants with city manager experience.

• Emmanuel Adediran
, city manager, College Park, Ga., population of about 14,000
• Gary Dumas, former city manager of Elk City, Okla., population of about 12,000
• Matthew Harline, 
former manager, Villa Park, Ill., population of about 22,000
• Theogene Melancon, 
former city manager, city of Dickinson, Texas, population of about 22,000
• Mayor David Rieder Jr.
, Clarksville mayor, population of about 10,000
• Scot Rigby
, former city manager, city of Edmond, Okla., population of about 99,000
• Kelsey Young
, city manager, Pinole, Calif., population of about 19,000

During Tuesday’s (Oct. 21) Fort Smith board meeting, Kemp received board approval to have the city’s human resources (HR) department create a list of the top five to eight candidates and conduct an initial screening of the candidates, then the board may begin interviews after Thanksgiving. Kemp said after reviewing the list compiled by HR, the board may also decide to extend the search or even use a search firm to recruit more candidates.

Kemp said the board is now wanting to focus on approving the 2026 budget. The board has a budget hearing set for Nov. 14.

As to the low number of candidates with top municipal leadership experience, Kemp said the city “is mid-process on a lot of things,” and that may have cooled interest in the job.

“When you do a Google search and you see some of the things we’re still in process on, if we were on the backside of that I would have a feeling that we would have had more applicants,” Kemp said.