Fort Smith Board to interview three city administrator candidates

Three of the four Fort Smith city administrator candidate finalists will be interviewed July 30 by the Fort Smith Board of Directors, with the board possibly voting on a hiring decision during an Aug. 4 regular meeting, according to the city.

The city has been without a city administrator for almost 20 months. The board fired Carl Geffken as city administrator in December 2024. Geffken was hired as city administrator in March 2016 with a salary of $175,000. His annual salary when he was fired was $204,513. Jeff Dingman has been the acting city administrator since Geffken’s firing, and is one of the four finalists.

“Acting City Administrator Jeff Dingman is also still under consideration, but he will not be interviewed again because the Board has already interviewed him and works with him regularly,” noted Josh Buchfink, the city’s director of communications. “The three external candidates will be in Fort Smith for a public meet-and-greet from 5:30 to 6:30 pm on Wednesday, July 29, at the Riverfront Pavilion, also known as the Glass Pavilion, at 100 N. B St.”

According to Buchfink, the board will hold a special meeting at 4:30 p.m., July 30, before convening in executive session to interview the three candidates.

Following are the three candidates to be interviewed July 30.
• Joseph Lessard of Austin, Texas
Former city manager for Ashland, Ore., population 21,061, and assistant city manager for Austin, Texas, population 578,608. According to his LinkedIn profile, Lessard is now working as an independent consultant.

• Richard McGill of Sikeston, Mo.
Former city administrator for New Madrid, Mo., population 2,512. According to his LinkedIn account, McGill is now a principal consultant with Truman Strategies.

• Robert Sivick of Dalton, Ga.
County administrator for Whitfield County, Ga., population 106,866. Sivick, a U.S. Army National Guard veteran, has held the job since September 2021. He also was a county manager in Wisconsin (May 2017-February 2021) and a city manager in Willamina, Ore. (July 2016-May 2017). He also practiced law in Omaha for more than 15 years.

Dingman previously served as interim city administrator in December 2024 and deputy city administrator beginning in 2011. After serving in the city manager’s office in University Park, Texas, for two years out of graduate school, he was hired by then Sebastian County Judge David Hudson in 1999 as assistant county administrator, where he worked for four years. Dingman then worked eight years as city administrator of Baldwin City, Kan., before returning as Fort Smith’s deputy city administrator in 2011.

The applicants are from the second attempt by the board in almost 20 months to hire a city administrator. The board in early March hired Daytona Beach Shores, Fla.-based Colin Baenziger & Associates (CBA) to conduct a nationwide search for a city administrator. The contract with CBA is not to exceed $33,500.

“Colin Baenzinger & Associates has done an exceptional job of highlighting our strengths and opportunities as a City and has brought forward several strong candidates who understand where we are, what we are working on, and what we have ahead of us,” City Director Lee Kemp said in a statement.

Kemp, the board liaison for the city administrator search, previously said he hoped to have a new city administrator hired by July 31. He also expressed concern that some board members may not vote for any candidate, no matter the qualifications, because they support a change in government.

The city administrator search is being conducted as a group of citizens are working to change the city’s form of government. In Fort Smith’s form of government, the city administrator is the CEO. Changing to a mayor-council form of government would place city management responsibility with the mayor.

The group is working to collect at least 2,608 registered city voter signatures to place the question on the November 2026 ballot. The signatures must be submitted by late July or early August and verified by the Fort Smith City Clerk’s office for the item to be placed on the November ballot.

If voters approve a change of government in November 2026, elections for the new government would be held in November 2028. If voters reject a change of government, state law prevents the question from returning to the ballot for four years.