Interviews for Ferndale City Manager to be Held Saturday

Ferndale is closer to getting a permanent city manager.

The City Council will interview four candidates during a special meeting at City Hall from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Council hired the Michigan Municipal League to conduct the search. Interim City Manager Mark Wollenweber said that the consultant received 53 resumes. The city paid less than $10,000 for the service.

The interviewees include Fred Zorn, Southfield's deputy city administrator since 2008; April McGrath, Ypsilanti's assistant city manager since 2007; Matthew Tepper, assistant city manager and city clerk for Grosse Pointe Farms since 2004, and John Gabor, city manager for Marine City since 2007.

Wollenweber, Ferndale's interim city manager since February, was selected to fill in for after he accepted the city manager's position in Birmingham.

Ferndale Mayor Dave Coulter said that Council provided search criteria to the MML consultant and said they had three main components:

• A demonstrated ability to work with the community and community groups and to take an active role in outreach of these groups in Ferndale.
• A demonstrated ability to work with staff, and work well.
• A candidate who has a vision for Ferndale and has the ability to go to council with tackling issues or presenting opportunities.

"The last component is hard to see in a resume," Coulter said. "That'll be one of the questions we'll be asking to the candidates. But we want to see where they might see emerging opportunities in Ferndale."

The MML consultant narrowed down the resumes to a dozen to present to Council. Coulter said council then held a closed meeting and narrowed the search to four candidates.

"The MML does a very good job of screening the resumes based on Council's criteria," said Wollenweber, who is not part of the selection process.

Wollenweber said there is no set date for a permanent city manager to take over. "Council has to make a decision, make an offer, wait for the offer to be accepted," he said. "There is no set date as of right now."

Bruner's salary as Ferndale's last permanent city manager was $98,000.