The council is looking for a permanent candidate for the job, last held on a long-term basis by Dale Neiman, who left last November following the election.
Steve Albright, who retired as Trinidad's city manager in February, came on the same month in an interim capacity.
Albright had stated at a previous Clearlake City Council meeting that the goal was to have a new city administrator in place and ready to get to work at the start of June.
He told the council at its meeting last Thursday, March 24, that the city had gotten a good response to its recruitment. He was expecting a total of 18 people would have submitted applied by the end of the day Friday.
Compared to recruitments in previous years, “That's a pretty good number,” Albright said.
The council budgeted $1,500 to spend on advertising the recruitment, with Albright reporting that they had spent less than $1,000 so far.
Albright suggested the council appoint two members to help him narrow down the field. After looking through the applications, “I think you'll find that it's not going to be too difficult to narrow it down,” he said.
Having less than a quorum of the council involved would alleviate the requirements of the Brown Act to notice the discussions on selecting an administrator, said Albright, who suggested the council start interviewing selected candidates in April.
If two council members were appointed to work with Albright on vetting the applications, Councilman Curt Giambruno wanted to know if the other three council members would have access to the applications. Albright said he could make time to go over all of the applications with the three not involved in the review.
If they chose two council members to assist with the review, Council member Judy Thein said she wanted to see one of the newer council members – Jeri Spittler or Joey Luiz – take part. She suggested she would opt out of being involved in the initial vetting, but Luiz urged her not to, noting her experience based on past administrator selection processes.
Thein said she was concerned that, with the smaller group considering the applications, there was the possibility that a good candidate could be overlooked.
Mayor Joyce Overton said she liked having everyone included in the process, pointing to the way they had worked together in selecting Albright as the interim. She said she felt they should go through the process together, including calling meetings to do so.
The council ultimately decided to address the review as a group.
On Friday the city released an agenda for a special closed session set to start at 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, for the purpose of discussing the appointment. Albright had suggested that they get started on the vetting this week.
Albright told the council Thursday that a difficulty would be salary levels. That's because Clearlake's fiscal situation has become more dire in recent years, resulting last year in the city administrator spot being reduced to part-time, as Lake County News has reported.
While the new administrator is chosen, Albright is handling some major tasks for the city, including working to reach a settlement to the Sierra Club Lake Group's lawsuit against the city and KK Raphel Properties over the council's approval of a regional shopping center plan at the now-closed Pearce Field airport property on Highway 53.
In addition, Albright told the council Thursday that staff intends to schedule a first reading of a proposed medical marijuana dispensaries ordinance for the council's April 14 meeting.
“I know it's going to be controversial,” Albright said.
However, he indicated he believes staff has a document that is a good compromise that can work for the city.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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