Search begins for new city manager

Springfield City Council on Nov. 5 approved the process to establish a search committee to replace Cumley, 64, who took the reins of the city when Tom Finnie retired in April 2006.

Mayor Pro Tem Gary Deaver will chair the committee; Mayor Tom Carlson said he would not lead the search because he won’t be in office when the new manager takes office due to term limits.

“This will be one of the most important decisions the council makes in quite some time,” Deaver said during the meeting. “It’s my goal to create a process that is totally transparent and inclusive.”

That process begins with a new Web site – which the city planned to unveil last week – where citizens can fill out a questionnaire and offer comments about what characteristics are most important for a city manager. Linked to the city’s home page, www.springfieldmo.gov, citizens also will be able to fill out volunteer applications if they are interested in serving on the search committee.

The search process, according to the resolution, will be similar to the process followed by Missouri State University in its 2005 presidential search.

Deaver said that while a specific number of committee members has not been set, the plan is to keep the number “manageable” – probably around 20.

The new candidate will have big shoes to fill; Cumley has been with the city for 34 years, including 23 years as assistant and deputy city manager before taking over for Finnie last year. When Cumley took the job as city manager in 2006, he stated that he had been considering retirement.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my tenure with the city of Springfield and have appreciated the support I have received from this and previous councils,” Cumley said in a letter to council.

The city manager is responsible for overseeing the city’s $240 million annual operating budget and a 1,600-member staff.

Crime lab space

Council also approved a resolution authorizing the sale of one of the L.E. Cox buildings, 440 E. Tampa St., to the Jordan Valley Community Health Center.

The agreement says the city would sell the north building, nearly 72,000 square feet, to the health center for $1.6 million, or $22.52 per square foot. For an additional $400,000, the health center has an option to purchase an additional 20,000 square feet in the south building, which will house the state crime lab. City officials expect to close on the deal in December.

Brooks Miller, the community health center’s executive director, said the purchase and renovations to the facility would be paid for with $10.6 million in state funds earmarked for the center in June as part of $60 million that went to Missouri’s federally qualified health centers.

Miller said the plan is to move the clinic’s operations at 630 W. Kearney St. into the new space, hopefully by the end of 2008. The Cox building, he added, had the additional advantage of being across the street from the Jordan Valley dental clinic.

“For the past couple of years, with the limited space we have, we’d been looking at new facilities,” Miller said. “With the proximity to our dental clinic, that building in particular was of interest. It has good parking, we won’t have to relocate our dental program, and we can develop our services.”

Among the plans for developing the clinic’s services is an urgent care program and space for Springfield-Greene County Health Department’s Women with Infants and Children program.

“Long term, we hope to be able to develop a hub up there,” Miller said, “where we can provide not only primary, behavioral and oral health care services but also develop a public health policy program there as well.”