CCWD faces ‘tricky’ path to new GM

By Alicia Castro | Posted: Friday, July 11, 2014 6:00 am / Calaveras Enterprise

A consultant hired to recruit the Calaveras County Water District’s new general manager said he already had about eight potential applicants in mind, and a new manager could be seated as soon as four months from now.

“And that could be changed if the person is sitting out there and willing to take the job,” said Brent Ives of BHI Management Consulting based in Tracy at the CCWD board’s July 9 meeting.

With the general election in November – and four of the five director positions on the ballot – Ives said the “ambiguity of the future, relative to the board … could indeed affect some people’s assessment of the situation whether they would enter into the candidate pool.”

If the timeline for the hire comes to fruition, at least two directors – both Bob Dean and Dennis Dooley, who have said they won’t seek re-election – will still be instrumental in the hiring process even though they won’t be around to work with the person. And that number of directors could increase, depending on the election results in November.

Ives suggested that a clause be included in the hired person’s contact about how soon after the election he or she could be fired.

Ives said it will be “tricky finding the right fit for this agency,” given CCWD’s higher-than-average turnover rate. The district has seen six general managers come and go in the past 10 years, not including several different interim managers.

In California, the average tenure of a general manager is four to five years, Ives said. The water district’s most recent manager, Mitch Dion, was fired in May after only 18 months on the job.

“I think what’s important

for you all is to have a very deliberate discussion about why that occurs – why we have a hard time holding a general manager,” Ives said. “I think that’s a very important, adult discussion to have.”

Of his 11 years in management recruitment, Ives said he has paired 11 general managers to water districts.

He said he intends to select a general manager with whom the CCWD board could establish “a long-term, productive relationship that serves you and the public well,” he said. “Not only do you win, but the public wins.”

Dooley said some former general managers didn’t seem to understand the complications of the district, referencing the various water systems scattered throughout the county, as well as water rights issues.

“I’ve had a couple general managers say they didn’t understand the vastness of this system when they came in,” he said.

Working to prevent that, Ives said he operates under a “fit to sort” model – first identifying what the district needs in terms of background, personality and leadership style, and then working through a targeted pool of prospects.

Beginning next week, Ives will meet with the CCWD board in closed session to identify the directors’ wish list in a general manager.

“I’ll be spending significant time with you understanding what it is you like and – maybe more importantly – what you don’t like in a general manager,” Ives said.

In addition to the closed session discussion, Dean suggested a possible public forum when ratepayers could provide input. Ives said he would defer to the advice of the CCWD’s counsel but added that an internal or local candidate may have an advantage with a public meeting.

In terms of seeking candidates, most of the targeting Ives does is face-to-face, he said.

“I’m out in the industry a lot,” he said. “I do online advertisements but very little in print.”

CCWD already began advertising the position in regional newspapers, but Ives said all prospective candidates should be filtered through him to streamline the process.