This article was first published January 24, 2026. The Open to the Public Interviews take place on Saturday March 14,th starting at 8:30 or 9 am – Please check with City Hall for further details.

The best way to educate on the answer to this question and to give more insight for communities that we have found so far is that most of the State of Michigan communities rely on these International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Guidelines

INFO: https://icma.org/documents/recruitment-guidelines?utm_source=chatgpt.com  

GUIDELINES:   Recruitment Guidelines Handbook Update

For some insight into the process:

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Professional local government managers are committed to:

• Serving as stewards of representative democracy

• Practicing the highest standards of honesty and integrity in local governance, as reflected in ICMA’s Code of Ethics

• Building sustainable communities as a core responsibility

• Networking and exchanging knowledge and skills across international boundaries

• Committing to lifelong learning and professional development

• Ensuring financial integrity and responsible management of community resources

• Implementing best management practices

The role of the media in the recruitment process includes:

• Acknowledging that media involvement is shaped by state law and local practice

• Briefing the media at the outset on the timing and major steps of the recruitment process

• Providing a general update on the overall response after the résumé submission deadline, when appropriate

• Protecting the confidentiality of résumés to avoid discouraging qualified candidates

• Informing applicants in advance of applicable public disclosure requirements

• Consulting with the local government attorney to determine what information may be released

• Establishing clear and consistent boundaries on information shared with the media

Decision point: community engagement in developing the administrator profile

• Determining whether community members or committees will participate in the recruitment process

• Recognizing that recruitment is most often conducted without direct community involvement

• Considering targeted community or committee input when developing the administrator profile

• Using community input to clarify expectations and better define the administrator’s role

• Facilitating engagement through staff, an outside recruiter, or elected officials, as appropriate

• Clearly communicating that final authority rests with the governing body

• Affirming that the administrator reports directly to the governing body

The City has started the process of searching for a new City Manager. Many of you spent your entire lives in some way connected with the Harbor Springs. Anyone who has hired someone for an important job, knows there is a good way to do this, and a bad way. Many of us did it the bad way first.

When the process started, WLHS gathered perspectives from the entire community and recommended a process to consider. Notably, in a letter to City Council from Carter Williams (Nov 2025) he highlighted a pivotal step to bing people together:

Get community input in December: Set aside time for residents and non-resident property owners to tell you what matters to them in a city manager. Encourage them to send in written comments rather than use up lots of 3 min slots. Some will care about infrastructure expertise, others about budget discipline, others about communication style. You’re not designing by committee, you’re gathering intelligence. The search firm can synthesize themes, you finalize the profile, and make the call.

We still think this is an important step before we start making decisions on candidates. It is hard to attract the right people or make a good decision without having a clear understanding of what we think makes sense in this town. Do we want someone who knows how to run a utility, DPW, and public safety? Or do we want someone to reform our economic development? Someone who can boost tourism? Or someone who can run the trains on time? Someone good at running within a budget? Or someone who is great at getting grants so that we can expand services?

An example of a problem that emerges without experience is the Utility. While we talk a lot about Planning Commission, parks, DDA etc, about 50% of the City’s operations are the Utility. For some time, we have had to make a key infrastructure change to our substation. All predictable if you understand utilities. Its an expensive project. We have known this for 15+ years. We kept delaying the decision. Starting in 2019, it became critical. The processes continued to be delayed, set aside fro othe rpriorites like funding the bluff walk way and the bicycle path. We are now at a point where we have to borrow $8M to afford the upgrade. Over the last many years, we should have increased utility rates to account for this predictable infrastructure change. We should have moved quickly when we had quotes that were much cheaper. All things a City Manager with utility experience would understand. Why didn’t we? When we hired the last city manager, we did not consider utility experience important. Our mistake, not the City Managers.

It seems a high priority for this hire is someone who has utility experience and has proven an ability to work with a strong comunity with a diverse set of members, like many towns with members who have been here for decades year round or not.

To get this right, you need to speak up:

1. If you know a good canddiate call the city
2. If you have an opinion of the key skills you think the next manager should have, send a note to the city council
3. Listen to the the City Council meetings and provide yor input

Getting this right means less friction, more trust, and a City that protects its bests qualities and adapts to new challanges.

The Hiring Process

The City has hired Walsh Municipal Services to manage the search process. This process is only as good as your input. Here is the proposal from the search firm.

The first interviews are scheduled for the Saturday the 14th of March. The first interviews of 5 candidates will take place at 8:30 am. Each interview is one hour long. Citizens are welcome to attend. Unfortunatly, the City currently declines to make the public session availble on zoom.

While the City has not asked for community input in the job requirements specification, they have summarized the opportunity as follows:

In our desire to work together more effectively across the community we see an opportunity to strengthen this process.

This leads us to raise a few points for discussion…..

Why is this public meeting with candiates not available to the community on Zoom/You Tube?

While the Michigan Open Meetings Act requires meetings to be open to the public, it does not require livestreaming or recording. As a result, some councils continue to rely on the traditional standard of allowing in-person attendance while stopping short of providing real time access to those that can’t attend when the hearing is held.

While Federal and State processes have all moved to live/recorded records, despite the simplicity, our city remains hesitant. Many residents now rely on online access to follow local government because of disability, work schedules, travel, or seasonal residency. In communities with a mix of year-round and seasonal residents, like Harbor Springs, recordings help the community understand and participate in how decisions are made.

For this reason, debates about recording candidate interviews often reflect a larger conversation about how small towns balance traditional governance practices with modern expectations for accessibility and transparency. Live simulcast and recordings improve trust. Our communities public particpation matrix recommends zoom access and recordings.

What is the City Manager so important?

Selecting a City Manager is one of the most consequential decisions a City Council can make. The individual chosen will influence not only the daily operations of municipal government, but also the long-term direction of the community.

Harbor Springs is a distinctive community. Located on the shores of Lake Michigan, it is both a small town and a well-known resort destination. While the year-round population is modest, the number of residents and visitors increases significantly during peak seasons.

The city manager oversees municipal operations including budgeting, planning, public works, and the city’s municipal electric utility. With a salary approaching $150,000, the role requires substantial leadership, administrative ability, and a clear understanding of the community’s priorities.

Harbor Springs faces the same challenges confronting many small resort communities: maintaining aging infrastructure, ensuring the reliability of essential services such as electricity, balancing seasonal population pressures, and preserving the character that makes the town unique. Meeting those challenges require thoughtful leadership, careful financial stewardship, and a willingness to listen to the diverse voices that make up the community.

Observations About the Candidate Pool

Based on publicly available information about the finalists, each candidate appears to bring different types of experience to the position. A strong candidate will demonstrate three qualities in answering these questions:

• thoughtful decision-making under pressure
• respect for the council-manager form of government
• a willingness to listen before acting

Some candidates have strong backgrounds in municipal administration, while others bring experience in areas such as planning, economic development, or public safety leadership. Several have served in senior roles within government organizations. Some might just be looking for a place to retire and interested in Protect and Preserve.

At the same time, it is not clear that any of the finalists have extensive direct experience overseeing a municipal electric utility or managing a small resort community with significant seasonal population changes. That does not necessarily disqualify a candidate, but it does highlight the importance of asking thoughtful questions during the selection process.

As Advertised – What is Harbor Springs Looking For ?

What did the Staff Ask for in the Search for a New City Manager ? This info researched gave us these ideas

Questions for City Manager Candidates

Resort Community Experience

1. What direct experience do you have managing a resort or seasonal community, and how did you address the unique pressures of tourism, seasonal population swings, and second-home ownership?
2. Resort towns often face tension between residents, visitors, and development pressures. How have you balanced economic growth with preserving community character?
3. Housing affordability for local workers is a major issue in resort communities. What policies or tools have you used to address this challenge?
4. How would you manage infrastructure and services when the population may double or triple during peak seasons?

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Municipal Electric Utility Experience

5. What experience do you have overseeing a municipal electric utility, including budgeting, rate setting, and reliability planning?
6. If you have not managed an electric utility directly, how would you quickly develop the expertise needed to oversee one responsibly?
7. Municipal electric utilities face challenges with reliability, infrastructure upgrades, and energy purchasing. What strategies would you use to maintain stable rates while investing in system improvements?
8. How would you balance local control of a municipal electric system with regional energy markets and regulatory requirements?

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Leadership & Accountability

9. Tell us about a time when staff or elected officials gave you critical feedback in a performance review. What did you learn from it and how did it change your leadership?
10. What metrics do you use to evaluate your own success as a city manager?
11. Have you ever been passed over for a position or not selected as the final candidate? What did you learn from that experience?
12. How do you rebuild trust in a community after leadership turnover or political conflict?

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Compensation & Motivation

13. What motivates you to pursue this position beyond salary or title?
14. How do you approach compensation discussions during periods when the community may be experiencing financial strain or political tension?

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Development & Land Use

15. What is your philosophy regarding development in small communities where preserving character is a priority?
16. How do you manage potential conflicts of interest when development pressures intersect with local politics and legal considerations?

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Fit for the Community

17. What specifically attracts you to managing a small resort community rather than a larger city?
18. If selected, what would be your top three priorities in your first year?
19. What would success in this role look like after five years?

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Strategic Question for the Search Committee

20. Given the importance of this role, what steps did the search process take to ensure the community is considering candidates with both resort community and municipal electric utility experience?