PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers is one of four finalists for the top city administrative post in Columbia, Mo.
Myers, who has worked in Port Angeles for 2½ years, also applied for the city manager job in Corpus Christi, Texas, in December.
He was of more than 50 hopefuls, then announced in January that he was no longer in the running.
At that time, Myers said he was staying put in Port Angeles.
“There are no other applications out there,” he told a Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce audience Jan. 31
Phone messages were left for Myers on Sunday afternoon and evening.
Port Angeles Mayor Dan Di Guilio said Myers informed him Thursday that he was a finalist for the Columbia job.
“I know he wanted to get closer to family,” Di Guilio said of the native Texan.
“I think he’s doing a great job up here. I wished him well, but I’d like to see him continue in his position up here.”
The other finalists — none of whom has the city managerial experience of Myers, who held the top administrative post in three other cities before coming to Port Angeles in December 2008 — are Lori Curtis Luther, city administrator of Waukesha, Wis., Mike Matthes, assistant city manager and chief information officer of Des Moines, Iowa, and David Vela, assistant city manager of Abilene, Texas.
Myers and his wife have family living near Missouri.
Myers was the city manager in Hot Springs, Ark., for 14 years before moving to Port Angeles.
“I know that family is important to him,” Di Guilio said.
“He wanted to be closer to his family.”
With a population of 108,500, Columbia is located on an Interstate freeway about halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City.
City Manager Bill Watkins, who retired last week, received $150,000 annually plus car allowance and retirement benefits.
The population of Port Angeles is 19,038. Myers’ salary is $157,590.
Columbia City Council members will interview the finalists this week
“I hope we know who we want by next Sunday afternoon,” Mayor Bob McDavid told the Columbia Missourian.
McDavid held a news conference Friday to announce the four finalists, including Myers.
KBIA, a National Public Radio affiliate in Columbia, reported that the city recruited 70 applicants from 30 states.
Eleven semifinalists were introduced to the City Council.
“This was an extremely talented and deep candidate pool, and again the criteria we looked at involved frankly a lot of experience with the administrative, financial and management side of it,” McDavid told KBIA.
“And we thought we came up with four candidates who met those criteria best.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
