Camp Verde is still looking for a new town manager after the Camp Verde Town Council’s No. 1 pick turned down the job last week.
After narrowing the field down to three finalists from a pool of 89 applicants, the council voted unanimously June 29 to offer the job to Kelly Udall, the current town manager of Pinetop-Lakeside.
After using a committee made up of local and regional officials to interview finalists, the top three were Udall; Russell Martin, the current town manager of Hayden, Colo.; and Lawrence Dobrosky, a former assistant town manager in the Town of Sahuarita, south of Tucson.
Council members said Udall had far and away impressed them the most.
“He stood out,” Councilwoman Robin Whatley said, adding she was impressed with Udall’s grasp of several of the issues facing Camp Verde.
Mayor Bob Burnside said he was impressed by the clear-cut manner Udall used to help carry out polices in Pinetop-Lakeside by setting out a clear vision that anyone can look at and understand what direction the town wants to go in.
But Udall said last week he had to turn the offer of employment down.
“I talked it over with my family,” Udall said. “I’ve decided that I’m going to have to go in another direction.”
Udall’s decision has forced the council to hold another special meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. on Wednesday, July 7, to determine which of the other two finalists to make an offer to.
Burnside said last week all of the finalists had been “wonderful applicants.”
Dobrosky has 22 years of experience in local government.
He has most recently worked as a consultant to municipal governments. Prior to that, he served two and a half years as assistant manager in Sahuarita, 10 years as revenue manager for the city of Peoria, and nearly 10 years in various positions with the city of Glendale.
He holds a master’s degree in public administration from Arizona State University.
Martin has served as the town manager of Hayden, Colo., since 2004. His earlier experience includes working as a planner in the towns of Minturn, Colo., and Richfield, Utah. He holds a master’s degree in human resource management from Utah State University.
Hayden wrote he was attracted to the way Camp Verde “prides itself on its history and rural values.”
The council stressed they want a manager who will relocate to Camp Verde, preferably within six months to a year after accepting the job.
Burnside said he’d like to see the town give the manager either a car or some sort of transportation allowance, but it wasn’t immediately clear if there was room in the town’s tight budget for such an allowance, common in many municipalities.
Salary negotiations would be kept in closed-door meetings until a candidate accepts the job, but previous managers have been paid more than $100,000 a year.
The duties of the town manager have been carried out by Interim Town Manager, Human Resources Director and Town Marshal Dave Smith. Former Town Manager Michael Scannell resigned from the job in March after serving two-and-a-half years. Scannell went on to accept the town manager’s job in Chino Valley.
