FORT SMITH : Oklahoma native voted new city administrator
Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/235508/
FORT SMITH — Directors ended a five-month search for a city administrator Tuesday when they offered the job to the deputy city manager of North Miami, Fla.
The directors voted unanimously to hire Dennis Kelly after emerging from executive session. The motion by Director Cole Goodman was to hire Kelly subject to negotiation of a contract.
If the contract is negotiated in time, Goodman called for the directors to vote on accepting it Tuesday.
The major portion of the negotiations would be over Kelly’s salary, Human Resources Director Richard Jones said. Kelly makes $ 135, 000 a year as North Miami’s deputy city manager. Fort Smith advertised the city administrator’s salary as between $ 125, 000 and $ 150, 000.
“I do not see any hurdles or barriers in us coming to an agreement,” Kelly said Tuesday from Florida.
Jones said Kelly had told him if he accepted the job that he could be ready to go to work between Oct. 13 and Nov. 3. Jones said Tuesday he hoped he and Kelly could narrow the start date during the negotiations.
In a related matter, Mayor Ray Baker said after Tuesday’s meeting that the city would not hire a second deputy administrator. Fort Smith had two, Ray Gosack and Dean Kruithof, until Kruithof accepted a job earlier this summer as city manager of Branson.
Baker said the directors decided not to hire a replacement for Kruithof because of budget constraints.
Kelly, a native of Enid in north-central Oklahoma, said he was excited about the prospect of moving to Arkansas. He said he had in mind four or five projects for Fort Smith but declined to identify them until after he has met with the board of directors and mayor.
While all of his professional experience has been in Florida, Kelly said he has family in the Tulsa and Texarkana areas. His father lives in Texarkana, Texas, and he visits him often. He also said he worked summer jobs as a young man in Texarkana and in Clinton, Okla.
He said he was impressed with Fort Smith. He liked the city’s library and thought it reflected well on the city’s quality of life. He toured downtown Fort Smith with its convention center and hotels, the new courts building and the federal courthouse.
Kelly was one of three finalists for the administrator job.
The other two candidates were Daniel Bishop, city administrator of Milan, Mich., and Ed Sadler, city administrator of Webster, City, Iowa. They were among nearly 40 people from around the country who applied for the job.
According to his resume, Kelly has been deputy city manager since 2004 in North Miami, population 60, 000. Before that, he was interim human resources director and public works director for Delray, Fla. He worked as city manager in several Florida towns since 1976.
While in North Miami, Kelly helped manage the city’s $ 141 million annual budget and 770 employees. He was responsible for implementing various capital projects, including a new youth activity center, library and Olympic training facility.
If he takes the job, Kelly will succeed Randy Reed who resigned in February during a controversy involving the employment of Police Chief Kevin Lindsey.