Anticipating a vacancy in your manager position? Does your current or new manager need some training on a complex issue? Are you facing a difficult and time-consuming project that your current staff does not have capacity to complete? We can help.
We work with a number of municipalities, and one constant refrain we hear from supervisors, staff and solicitors is that there is a shortage of qualified managers out there. Several factors contribute to this situation. Let’s face facts, there are a number of baby boomers considering retirement. In many cases, there is no one on the “bench” in the township ready to step up to replace these folks. There are few opportunities to obtain the training necessary to become a well-rounded effective manager. Many municipal government staffs are just too small.
If a municipality is lucky enough to find a qualified candidate, often the manager has a knowledge deficiency in some area. It is only natural. Maybe they have no finance experience, or codes experience, or utility experience, or law enforcement experience. Managers are responsible for a wide array of duties and tasks. The bottom line is you probably are not going to find someone with all of those skills/experience. That type of experience simply does not grow on trees!
Finding someone ready to step in and replace your retiring manager is a daunting task. Add to that the pressure of day-to-day operations continue, and the frustration becomes palatable. Sometimes, supervisors make the trade off to quickly fill a vacant manager position and then learn that their short-term gain turns into long term pain.
After talking with many of our public sector clients facing this issue, we came up with a solution. In January, McNees launched its Municipal Management services initiative. We offer municipalities the services of an experienced manager to serve on an interim basis while you conduct your manager search, and we can also help with the search itself.
Utilizing the services of an interim manager will remove the pressure of having to act quickly, which often results in a poor selection. With an experienced manager at the helm you can take the time to seek out, identify, train and solidify your management team. This will allow your operations to continue to run smoothly so you can properly select an excellent candidate.
In addition, if you are scratching your head as to how to even find a candidate, we can help. We can put together a thorough selection process, including the development of a quality, accurate job description, interview questions and key evaluation metrics to assist you in your selection.
When you do find a qualified candidate, our Municipal Management Services team can help provide the necessary training to get the manager up to speed in the areas where he or she may have less experience. Finally, if your Manager is feeling overwhelmed with a new project or initiative, our Municipal Manager Services team can help with individual, unique projects such as FEMA/PEMA disaster relief grants, stormwater requirements, and other individualized areas.
Our Municipal Management Services team is led by Penny Pollick, who jointed McNees in 2018 and has over a decade of experience as a Township Manager, and years of experience in key areas of municipal government.
McNees offers flexibility with respect to the pricing of these independent contractor services (hourly, monthly, project basis), and the length of the engagement. In most cases, the interim manager services will be less expensive than the compensation of a full-time manager.
If you are interested in learning more about these services, please contact me at ppollick@mcneeslaw.com or 717.581.2318.