February 10, 2006
AFN employee seeks top post
Search narrowed to top four after weeding through 61 applicants
By Vickie Aldous
Ashland Daily Tidings
An Ashland Fiber Network employee is among the final four candidates to become head of the city’s cable television and Internet service, according to Mayor John Morrison.
He declined to say whether the AFN employee candidate is AFN Cable Television Manager Michael Ainsworth, Telecommunications Engineer Richard Holbo or another employee.
Morrison said naming the city employee would be too “disruptive” for that person.
Two panels composed of the mayor, a few Ashland City Councilors, city employees, people with expertise in telecommunications and others interviewed the top four candidates in person earlier this week. Morrison and City Administrator Gino Grimaldi together interviewed the candidates as well, according to Morrison.
“There’s not a weak candidate in the bunch,” he said.
Morrison said he will probably be comfortable releasing the names of candidates when the list has been narrowed down to the top two.
Ashland’s mayor appoints department heads with the confirmation of the council.
The new AFN leader, who would be called the Information Technology Director, would head AFN along with managing the city’s internal computer systems.
City officials are investigating whether to sell AFN or spin it off as a separate nonprofit organization. If the city no longer runs AFN, the IT director could remain a city employee with the reduced role of operating the city’s computer systems. The employee potentially could go with AFN if a company or nonprofit that assumed control over the service wanted that person.
Managers of the nonprofit Jefferson Public Radio Foundation have offered to take over AFN, but have said they already have management capacity in place and would not need the city’s AFN leader.
Morrison said the candidates are aware that the exact future role for the IT director is not certain at this time.
“They all expressed continued interest in the job,” he said.
Morrison said of the three candidates who are not the city employee, one has extremely strong experience in computer systems management and has some knowledge of cable television and broadband Internet issues.
The second “external” candidate has strong marketing skills with less computer systems management experience, while the third candidate also has strong computer systems experience but no cable television background.
Morrison said the top two candidates likely will go through another round of interviews. He said he also wants them to become familiar with other aspects about Ashland.
“We want them to be acclimated so they don’t get sticker shock at the price of housing,” he said. “Of course, this is not a job that would require that the person live in the city.”
The city’s top candidate for Community Development Director recently backed out because of the high cost of housing and because his wife, a teacher, might have had difficulty getting a job here in an era of declining Ashland School District enrollment.
That search is on hold until the city finds a new city administrator.
Grimaldi has accepted the top administrative post for the City of Springfield, but will remain with the City of Ashland until his replacement is in place.
The application period for Ashland city administrator closed on Friday, Feb. 3. A total of 61 applications came in, which was an “excellent” response, according to Bobbi Peckham, a partner in the Sacramento-based executive recruiting firm Peckham & McKenney that is working on the search.
She could possibly come to Ashland on Feb. 20 or Feb. 21 to discuss the top picks with Morrison, although the date has not yet been set, according to Morrison and Peckham.
Morrison said Peckham told him about 40 of the city administrator applicants are strong, experienced candidates and come from all over the West.
“I’m very pleased with that. It gives us a strong pool to choose from,” he said.
Morrison said the city likely will set up panels to interview the top four or five city administrator candidates.
Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or vlaldous@yahoo.com.