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Thursday, February 2, 2017

Crossville city council could choose a new city manager as early as February 7 in a special called meeting.

Crossville city council appears much closer to deciding on the hiring a new city manager after interviewing the three remaining finalists twice.

A special called meeting is set for Tuesday February 7 at 6:30 PM. That will be a busy night for the council with a work session set for 5 PM, a special called beer board at 6:00 PM and the called meeting to consider hiring a city manager.

The called meeting's agenda is listed as “discussion and action on hiring a city manager.” Members could either move forward with a hiring decision or discuss and decide on how to proceed with the decision. It is unclear which way they will go. At the end of the second work session, Councilman Scot Shanks said he would like to see a unanimous vote for whoever is chosen.

Councilman J. H. Graham has been unable to attend most of the interview meetings in person due to recent emergency surgery and while he is improving it is unclear if he will be able to attend the called meeting next Tuesday.

Council members interviewed three finalist candidates for the city manager position.
Here they talk to Steve Foote.  Very few of the public attended the interview sessions.

Council spent several hours Monday and Tuesday asking questions of the three candidates including Dennis Sparks and David Foote Monday then Greg Wood on Tuesday evening. Council had planned a second interview Tuesday but the candidate Mark Reeter informed the city he had taken another position.

One of the more interesting questions asked of the 3 remaining candidates came from new council member Scot Shanks asking each to describe themselves in 5 words. Candidate David Sparks described himself as “honest, organized, faithful, skilled and experienced.” David Foote described himself as “determined, ethical, analytical and having common sense.” The final candidate, Greg Wood answered the question saying that he was “genuine, a simple man, compassionate, logical, not taking himself too seriously and a team player.”

Each candidate was asked about their preferred working hours and if they would participate in events after hours if needed. All indicated they were not regular office hour employees and that they would participate in events outside of regular hours as well.

Mr. Sparks and Mr. Wood have both served as county administrators or managers previously and Mr. Foote has been a director of planning and community development. Foote was asked by councilman Shanks about why they should consider him over the others who had more experience and Foote responded that the other applicants did not have manager experience when they got their first job in that position.

Foote also described himself as successful in many different jobs and that he always tried to do more than expected. “My employers got more than they paid for with me.”

Councilman Harris asked eac candidate about how they handled relations with the press. Mr. Sparks said, “Tell them the truth.” Mr. Foote said that news was an important aspect adding that it used to be newspapers but now includes other outlets and social media. He added that he liked to work in harmony with the media. Mr. Wood said that he had done public affairs work during his time in the air force and said the best thing is to be straight with them, “Don't seem like you're hiding something from them.”

The three candidates all spent some time in Crossville prior to the in person interviews. Mr. Sparks, who has worked in aviation said he enjoyed visiting the airport and in addition he observed lots of retail business, restaurants and manufacturing. He commented on Crossville being the Golf Capital of Tennessee. “This is a nice city that you can be proud of and I'd be proud to work for you,” commented Sparks.

Mr. Foote described Crossville as “Thriving, a place people are moving to, not away from. It is important to be a place people want to be.”

Mr. Wood said that “Crossville was a great place to live.” He said he had looked around and found out some things adding, “None of it scared me off.”

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