Hendersonville Standard
HENDERSONVILLE WEATHER

Board to interview final two CA candidates




Hendersonville leaders plan to interview two finals candidates for the position of city administrator later this month. FILE

Hendersonville leaders plan to interview two finals candidates for the position of city administrator later this month. FILE

A former Mississippi county administrator and an interim village manager from Schiller Park, Ill., are the final two candidates for Hendersonville’s newly created position of city administrator.

The position was created in 2019 by a narrow vote of the city’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BOMA). Its creation transfers the managing of City Hall’s day-to-day operations, as well as the drafting of the city’s annual budget, from an elected mayor to an appointed administrator who answers directly to the BOMA.

Former Hendersonville Parks Director Dave LeMarbre has been serving as the city’s interim city administrator since his appointment in December.

The city conducted a national search late last year and received 24 applications by the Jan. 31 deadline.

A steering committee consisting of LeMarbre, Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) advisor Gary Jaeckel, Goodlettsville City Manager Tim Ellis, White House City Administrator Gerald Herman, Hendersonville Interim Human Resources Manager Chris Taylor and citizens Rick Fox and Rita Lea narrowed the list down to five in February. The meeting was not open to the public and the names of the five candidates were never released.

LeMarbre told the Hendersonville Standard on Monday that one of the five candidates withdrew from consideration earlier this year. The remaining four candidates were interviewed by the committee via Zoom, LeMarbre added. Since then the list has narrowed to two candidates who will be interviewed by the BOMA on July 16.

The 13-member board has been meeting via Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic. LeMarbre and Taylor had said they preferred to wait until the candidates could be interviewed in person.

BOMA members learned via email on June 30 who the two candidates are. They are Carmen Davis, a former county administrator for Hinds County, Miss., and David Strahl, an interim village manager in Schiller Park, Ill.   

“These candidates have been screened and interviewed multiple times by our Steering Committee members,” Taylor said in an email obtained by the Hendersonville Standard. Taylor attached the resumes, cover letters and applications of the two candidates.

Davis held the Hinds County, Miss., post from Sept. 2010 to Jan. 2020, according to her resume.

She was a city planner in Detroit, Mich., from June 1993 to July 2001 and from Jan. 2007 to Aug. 2009 prior to that.

Davis holds a Master’s of Business Administration degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich., as well as a Bachelor’s of Art degree in Urban Planning and Geography from the same university.

Strahl has been serving as interim village manager in Schiller Park since January 2019, according to his resume.  

Prior to that, he served for a year as the city administrator in O’Fallon, Mo., from Oct. 2017 to Oct. 2018. Strahl was also an assistant village manager for the village of Mount Prospect, Ill., from 1993 to 2016. He holds a Master’s of Public Administration degree from Northern Illinois University in urban management, and a Bachelor’s of Science degree in political science from Manchester University.

Minimum qualifications for the position included a master’s degree in public administration or business administration and 10 years’ experience in municipal government, including five years of administrative and supervisory experience. The salary range for the position is $130,000 to $150,000.

Davis’s interview is scheduled for 5 p.m. and Strahl’s is set for 7 p.m. in the main meeting room at City Hall. Due to social distancing restrictions, citizens who would like to view the interviews will be able to do so via a live feed in another room at City Hall, according to LeMarbre.

Jaeckel will moderate the interviews. BOMA members were invited to submit questions for Jaeckel to consider by July 10.

Leave a Reply