City Manager Candidates Movin' on Up

[XLFD]

Well they're movin on up, To the west side.
To a deluxe city office in Third Ward.
Movin on up, To the west side.
They'll finally get treasure to hoard.

The interim city manager, Steve Brock, announced the three finalists set to replace him at the January 14th meeting of the Ludington City Council. These three were:

-- Mitchell Foster, village administrator of Winneconne, Wisconsin

-- Patrick Reagan, city manager of Crystal Falls

-- James Van Ess, supervisor of Tallmadge Charter Township (Ottawa County)

Not a lot is otherwise known of these candidates, the MCP's introduction of these three told a little more of their education, experience and tenure in their positions.   More will be learned when they are interviewed on Thursday afternoon (1-24-19) starting at 3:30 PM.  I have received part of a FOIA response which has their cover letter and resume, which is included in the rollout below.

Mitch will move from Wisconsin;
Patrick won't freeze in Crystal Falls.
James, a whole lotta tryin'
In this and other town halls.

Mitchell Foster:  MF Cover Letter   MF Resume

Never heard of Winneconne, chances are it could be because of its size at just under 30% of Ludington's population located northwest of Oshkosh between two lakes.  Here's where we find young Mr. Foster:

Mitch is also one of five finalists interviewing for East Grand Rapids City Manager. They were all interviewed on January 11 and the announcement of a winner is pending.  Job-hunting in earnest, Mitch is likely bummed by his current remuneration in Winneconne, which amounts to only $28,700.

Mitchell and his wife told of their success story in getting control of their finances and a $75,000 debt with syndicated radio host Dave Ramsay, you can check out their performance below on video:

Patrick Reagan:   PR Cover Letter   PR Resume

When Patrick Reagan was hired at Crystal Falls in May 2016, a village with  approximately a sixth of Ludington's population within ten minutes of Wisconsin, he was to receive a salary of $65,500 with very modest benefits.

Mr. Reagan just missed getting a lucrative city manager position in Albion in September that would pay around the same as Ludington.  Patrick, like Mitchell, hopes to cross Lake Michigan to receive a big salary increase here.  Here was his interview in front of Albion:

James VanEss:  JV Cover Letter   VE Resume

Interesting enough, the township supervisor of Tallmadge is an elected position, and Van Ess has been the top vote getter for awhile.  Running a township is a bit different animal than a village or a city, so there may be a learning curve as Van Ess learns the ropes.

Tallmadge Township doesn't provide their budget, however, this 2011 Mlive article reviewed the salaries of West Michigan Township supervisors and listed Tallmadge's as $25,360.  If this has rose with the rate of inflation over the years, he would still be drawing less than $29,000 in.  

There is an interesting story from WZZM on how Tallmadge Twp. under Van Ess' leadership almost missed out on state revenue sharing funds two years in a row, if not for the press alerting the township of their oversight.  Tallmadge Township is a lot bigger in area, but has roughly the same population as Ludington in the county with former Ludington City Manager John Shay serving as assistant county supervisor.

Now they're up in the big leagues
Gettin' their turn at bat.
Look at the wages, see all those benefits
Ludington makes wallets fat.

Overview:  Mitch and James currently earn under $29,000 in their supervisory positions in running a village and a township.  Patrick earns a fair salary of $65,500 or more running a small Yooper border village.  On Thursday, the Ludington City Council will interview each in order to put them into a position of running a city and earn over $100,000 per annum, and a fringe benefit package assuredly in the range of $75,000 or more. 

These are the best candidates among 37 that were picked, either would likely give their professional soul to earn what Ludington plans on giving them for a salary.  

Well they're movin on up,
To the west side.
To a deluxe city office in Third Ward.
Movin on up
To the west side.
They'll finally get treasure to hoard.

[stump]

So it looks like our candidates have never been in a higher paying management job. The Michigan Municipal League states that the population of ludington needs to pay it Manager between $90,000 -110,000. Any bets what the council will offer? Well hell yes, keeping with the past wage fiascos I'd say $125,000.

[XLFD]

The city council will likely fail to realize that they are in the driver's seat as to what wage they need to offer their finalists who have never managed a city the size of Ludington.  I think they need to walk it back to the low part of the range, because if all of these guys throw away the opportunity, there are still dozens waiting in the wings.  As you say, however, they won't because pinching-pennies doesn't happen on this council.

The first thing I'd be asking Mitchell Foster is why does he claim to be making $71,000 at his job on his resume, when the budget of Winneconne (provided above) only supplies less than $29,000 wages to the City Administrator.  After asking each about their own reason for specifically requesting confidentiality, I would wonder aloud why we should trust them not to go job hunting secretly after they become CM of Ludington like they did here. 

[Freedom Seeker]

Thanks for the comprehensive study, X.  It's unreal that Ludington would increase salaries so much.  If they keep doing so and bankrupt Ludington, the state might pay the salary instead (as in emergency manager--ha ha).  I like the guy who got to scream "we're debt free!!". Maybe he could do a similar thing for Ludington!  Dave Ramsey's program is respectable.  

It could be a new community project and we could all get in a dollar symbol parade on Ludington Ave. and in unison scream, WE'RE $58 MILLION DOLLARS  DEBT FREE!!!

[snide]

No ... We have way more than that. Our grandstanding local school administrator says there is 110 MILLION just laying around in the pockets of our citizenry (not tourists - US), just waiting to be given to the Ludington Area School District  so they can have their WANT (not need) of a new school a mile outside of city limits on an already over driven road.

[Freedom Seeker]

Oh, yeah!  Thanks for that reminder snide.  So we could make a moving parade winding from Ludington Ave. up through Tinkham to Jebavy and holler, WE'RE $168 MILLION DOLLARS DEBT FREE!  Maybe we need a community project to collectively buy the next Powerball ticket or we could take $25k left from risk management and buy 12.5 Powerball tickets.

And to make sure the DDA gets in on it, we should have at least five tents along the way, making fair share of buying equally from DDA members products.

Now I see better why we are wanting to move the school out of the new firehouse vicinity onto Jebavy?  Is that going to happen?