WASHINGTON, Ill. – The process to find a new Washington city administrator is underway.
The timeline to replace Jim Snider was outlined at a meeting Monday night by consultant Jim Arndt with Arndt Municipal Support.
A public posting for the position is scheduled to go live for 30 days on Friday. Final candidates are to be notified in mid-November, with an offer to the preferred candidate in December, and the job to begin on January 5th, 2026.
Arndt says he anticipates 50-60 applicants for the job, but notes some are already asking questions about the job. One thing he pointed out was the stability of the job.
“The mayor is telling me she wants this next administrator to be stable here, and be here for several years, and that’s what the administrators want as well,” Arndt said. “They want that stability too, when they come here, when they move their families here, they relocate here and invite in the Washington community.”
Arndt says there have also been some questions about what the mayor and city council are like. Members of the council at the meeting determined a base salary of anywhere between $160,000 and $180,000 for the job.
Arndt says there’s been meetings with department heads and Mayor Lilija Stevens about topics such as what piece of advice they would give to the administrator, and what they would need to know about Washington.
The timeline of the hiring process was not the only item discussed related to the job at the meeting. To start Monday’s meeting, the council discussed establishing a deputy administrator position.
The proposal would create a new position, but there would not be a new hire for it. The anticipated plan would be to have a department head appointed to the role, and have those duties added to their current responsibilities when there is no full-time administrator in place.
Currently, when such a role is needed, the mayor fills in. Interim City Administrator Dennis Carr, who was appointed to the role after Jim Snider left, says it would help bring continuity.
“In the past, with the mayor kind of taking over that, some things get stalled, some things get pushed that don’t necessarily fall in line, but there’s not that checks and balances that having the city administrator in the position would do,” Carr said.
Questions from aldermen at Monday night’s meeting ranged from compensation for the deputy position, to what happens if no one wants it. But general sentiment was that it’s a needed role after turmoil over the past decade.
A vote on the proposal could come as early as next week.
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