The East Lansing City Council has placed its faith in Affion Public, a Pennsylvania-based executive search firm, to help conduct a nationwide search for the next city manager.
The decision came after Councilmember Kevin Beard and Councilmember Roger Peters interviewed several executive search firms and their references after presentations were given to the council from the top three firms at the council’s Sept. 27 meeting.
City officials hope to see a new city manager to replace East Lansing City Manager Ted Staton in early 2012. Until then, Deputy City Manager George Lahanas will serve as interim city manager for the community.
Affion Public has chosen several executive city officials in municipalities across the country and most recently chose Ann Arbor’s new city administrator, Steve Powers, last August.
Councilmember Nathan Triplett and Mayor Pro Tem Diane Goddeeris said seeing reports of the success a similar college town experienced with Affion’s choice for a comparable position helped them come to that conclusion.
“Affion really stood out as a firm that has specialized knowledge in this search process we’re about to undertake,” Triplett said.
Beard said all of the final candidates likely would have been good matches for the community but noted Affion Public as his choice for the most viable as well after comparing quality of presentation and compatibility with college communities.
CEO of Affion Public Scott Reilly said in his presentation at the Sept. 27 meeting that the firm exclusively searched for public executives, most of which are city official positions.
He said the process the firm goes through to find executives — getting to know the community, networking and walking each viable candidate through an extensive background search and grading system tailored to meet city requirements — would give a diverse selection to city officials in the hopes of picking someone who works well with East Lansing.
“This is not by chance or by luck — recruitment is a process,” Reilly said.
“We make sure that nobody falls through the cracks.”
Now that the firm has been chosen, the city and Affion Public will move forward on the hunt for potential candidates.
Council members also unanimously approved requests to rezone property owned by Capital City Vineyard Church, 1635 Coolidge Road.
Kevin Shoemaker, lead pastor for the church, said the request was made in the hopes of expanding the building area, as the church is rapidly growing.
Goddeeris said she supported the rezoning and the request to expand the building because the church had fit in well with the city in that location and likely would benefit from an increase in space.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
