Want to be the next San Antonio City Manager? We understand the pay is pretty good.
1200 WOAI news reports that the city plans to post the job opening to succeed Sheryl Sculley later today, after City Council refines the job description.
Mayor Nirenberg says he hopes to have qualified job applications in his hands by early next month, and hopes the Council can come up with a list of finalists by the end of January.
Sheryl Sculley says she would like her retirement to be effective by the end of June, but there is a strong sentiment on City Council that the job should be filled well before the May council and mayor's elections, so the job will not become a political football during the campaign.
But that election could cause candidates to reconsider. Sculley, for example, declined to take the San Antonio job when Mayor Ed Garza recruited her from Phoenix, because support on council was not unanimous. Then Councilman Julian Castro, interestingly, balked at the salary the city was set to pay her.
She took the job when new Mayor Phil Hardberger, who had defeated Castro in the 2005 Mayor's race, put together a unanimous vote.
Many candidates for jobs like school superintendent and city manager want to at least go in with the unanimous support of the elected body that hires her, but in San Antonio's case, that body may change radically within months of even weeks of the new manager taking office.
Nirenberg stresses that the city will strictly follow the restrictions laid down by the citizens in last months' charter change vote.
The amendment requires that the next manager serve for a maximum of eight years, and that the person's pay cannot be more than ten times the highest paid full time city employee, which is expected to put that max at about $280,000.
But what remains unclear is whether that pay ceiling includes only the base salary, or also includes bonuses and other perks. Under her existing contract, Sculley was eligible for bonuses of up to $100,000 on top of her controversial base salary of $475,000.
Nirenberg also stresses that the hiring process will be 'transparent,' with open meetings scheduled where citizens can ask questions of the finalist candidates.