The Chadron City Council has released the names of the four finalists to be city manager and is bringing them to town for interviews next week with the hope of making its selection at a special council meeting a week from Thursday.
The finalists are Bradley Coughenour of Yakima, Washington, Michael DeMers of Austin, Texas, Scott Meszaros of Seward, Alaska, and John Sutherland of Rapid City.
When the Chadron City Council holds its special session to choose the city manager, councilman Miles Bannan won’t be part of the decision. Bannan was an applicant for the job and sat out all discussions.
He told his colleagues last night that after talking with City Attorney Adam Edmond that he was willing to formally withdraw as an applicant and join them to provide a potential tie-breaking vote, but was afraid it might be viewed by some as a conflict.
Mayor Mark Werner said he’d talked with a constituent who raised the same issue, so he agreed with Bannan – who said he hoped the other 4 council members would keep talking and discussing until they settled on the right candidate.
Although city councils generally prefer unanimous or near-unanimous votes when picking a city manager, the Chadron Council hired Greg Yanker on a 3-2 vote in 2017 and he was praised by all the members when he left for the private sector last December.
