The City of San Angelo went through at least four qualified Economic Development Director candidates with no success. Assistant City Manager Michael Dane told City Council last July the search would begin quickly.
It took two years to hire a City Engineer and that happened via an internal promotion. Water Chief Alison Strube left last September and is yet to be replaced.
City Council meets this Friday to begin its annual strategic planning process. Long running vacancies in key positions has to harm city operations and service quality.
Economic development has been a top strategic priority for at least a decade. Council has been at odds with two boards operating in this arena, the Development Corporation board and TIRZ board.
There is much to iron out but city leaders are loathe to listen and do the hard work of managing differences. Top executives prefer to ignore or steamroll those they view as problematic. That's why former Economic Development Director Guy Andrews is gone and COSADC's board First Vice President got summarily replaced.
Issues remain after parties are ignored. They are not automatically resolved with elimination of one of the parties. That's likely why the city still searches for Andrews' replacement. It's clearly strategic. We'll see if Council addresses it in their planning process.
Update 6-28-23: Assistant City Manager Michael Dane informed the Development Corporation Board the selection process produced two qualified candidates who have been interviewed. He stated a meeting will occur this afternoon to discuss those candidates.
Update 7-13-23: Assistant City Manager Michael Dane stated the search committee will meet tomorrow to decide between the two active candidates and the position could be filled by the middle of of August.
Update 8-30-23: The City is having difficulty finding candidates and city leaders may "press pause" on the search. It's been a year since Guy Andrews retired, later sharing his concerns with the COSADC board. City Council's interaction with Chamber Chief Walt Koenig would give any candidate pause.
Economic Development is a top three priority for City Council and a number of items are in the cue to be resolved between COSADC and City Council, so the answer is to not hire someone and stretch existing staff further? Will the city do that with water next?
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