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November 9, 2009

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Editorial: Open up the search to hire city manager

Tuesday, April 16, 2002 | 8:47 a.m.

When Virginia Valentine announced earlier this month that she would step down as Las Vegas city manager, she had some advice for the mayor and the City Council: conduct a national search to find her successor. But the elected officials have ignored her advice. Instead some are scrambling behind the scenes to get their own candidates juiced into the job.

This all looks unseemly. If the selection is based on who has the most connections, then the public will wonder whether the next city manager will make decisions and recommendations based not on what is best for the city and its residents, but on what is best for his or her political patrons.

There is a better way. The city should appoint an independent screening panel to sort through the applications and interview the candidates, providing the City Council with a list of finalists. From there the City Council should discuss in public the qualifications of the candidates and then hire the best individual for the job. The goal should be to hire who is most qualified, not who has the most political clout with the City Council.

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