Batavia hires recruiter to fill electric chief job

Getting someone to run Batavia's electrical utility has proved tough, so the city council is hiring specialized help.

It agreed Monday night to hire Dowdy Recruiting LLC, a Colorado firm which specializes in recruiting people for jobs in power utilities.

Batavia's previous electric superintendent, Bob Rogde, stepped down in March 2014. He is now a senior project engineer for the city.

From March to August 2014, the city looked for a replacement, but didn't find anyone qualified.

In 2015, the city created a new position, a combination of electric engineering and business manager. It advertised the job in April, but has not found anyone.

The consultant will develop the job profile, look for someone, and evaluate and interview candidates, according to the proposal.

The city will pay Dowdy a minimum of $25,000. The maximum will be 25 percent of the annual salary of the person hired, which works out to a maximum of $30,690, based on the city's current salary schedule, according to Wendy Bednarek, the city's human resources director.

The city will also pay unspecified travel and administrative expenses.

Dowdy's proposal says typically it can place someone within four months. Aldermen Marty Callahan and Kevin Botterman voted against the proposal. He said Bednarek, who was hired in June, should first try doing the search herself, praising her competence. He also said that, if the people who applied did not meet all the specifications, perhaps the city should have changed its requirements, to use what the applicants did have. And he did not like that the firm is not based locally.

"I need to be able to say with a straight face, 'We exhausted all options and this is why,'" Callahan said. Botterman said he agreed.

Bednarek said she was capable of recruiting, "But what Dowdy brings to us is their contacts." Dowdy advertises it has a pool of 38,000 names from which to draw.

Alderman Nick Cerone questioned whether anybody from far out-of-state would really move to Batavia to take the job. Bednarek said the pool of people in northeastern Illinois is limited, as not many towns have their own electric utilities.

City Administrator Bill McGrath said there are only four or five recruiters in the country for the power industry. Bednarek and public works director Gary Holm reviewed four firms.

Alderman Michael O'Brien said the time is "long overdue" to fill the position, and that the amount being spent is less than 1 percent of the $48 million electric utility budget.