At a special meeting Wednesday, the Durham City Council came one step closer to finding a replacement for former City Manager Marcia Conner. Members of the council narrowed the preliminary list of eight search firms down to two.
After mulling over the credentials and costs of the contending search firms, council members selected Springsted Inc., based in Virginia Beach, Va., and The Mercer Group Inc., based in Atlanta, Ga., for further consideration.
One of the remaining two search firms, both of which were recommended by the North Carolina League of Municipalities, will perform background and reference checks and provide a list of potential city manager candidates.
Durham Director of Human Resources Alethea Bell said the council will make the decision sometime after the firms deliver their presentations, which will occur just before the council’s Sept. 7 meeting.
After the council picks a search firm, it could take up to six months before a new city manager is hired, council member John Best, Jr. said. In the meantime, Patrick Baker, Durham’s interim city manager, will stay at the post until the council hires a permanent city manager. Baker, an assistant city attorney, started work after Conner spent her final day on the job last Friday.
“I’m hoping to have a new city manager by the end of the year,” said Best, a longtime advocate of Conner’s resignation. “I hope to give the citizens of Durham a Christmas present, and that present will be a great city manager who will lead Durham forward.”
Conner’s three-year tenure in Durham was marred by allegations of corruption and incompetence, Best said. Members of the City Council put pressure on Conner to resign after reports of her awarding municipal contracts to friends, financial problems in the housing department and unsuccessful police chief searches, Best added.
“I just felt we could do better as far as a city manger for Durham, considering the way she dealt with contracts, the way she handled the search for the police chief, the way she handles herself in day to day interactions with staff,” Best said. “Fortunately a majority of the Council felt that we needed a change. Now we’re moving.”
Conner came under more pressure to resign when the Durham-based advocacy group Concerned Citizens for Accountable Government presented the City Council with a 7,000-signature petition demanding her removal from the post.
“Marcia Conner is just one symptom of a big cancer,” CCAG Founder Charlotte Woods said. “She’s only a tiny little part of the corruption, but you have to start somewhere.”
Woods’ group came under fire after one petition signer wrote a racial slur on the petition form. Woods said the slur hurt the credibility of the petition, which she said had nothing to do with the fact that Conner is black.
“It was extremely unfortunate and very regrettable that one petitioner wrote a racial slur across the face of their petition,” Woods said. “That caused a great deal of sadness in this group.”
Conner maintained supporters amid the pressure to resign. “[Conner is] a very skilled, competent black woman who is vulnerable,” City Council member Howard Clement told the News & Observer of Raleigh in July. “We needed to wrap our arms around her and protect her from the slings of this uncaring public.”
Clement could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
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