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Geneva fills assistant administrator job, after 2 years without

Geneva has filled the assistant administrator post that has been vacant for nearly two years.

Benjamin McCready joined the staff Monday.

He will manage administration, finance, human resources and information technology divisions; be the risk manager; negotiate collective-bargaining agreements; assist in making the budget; work on special and capital projects; and fill in when the city administrator is out of the office.

McCready has been assistant to the manager of Normal since 2016. He was an assistant to Rock Island's manager for four years, and before that a management analyst for two years for Salem, Oregon.

While obtaining his master's degree in public administration from Northern Illinois University, McCready served an internship with Batavia. During that time, he also was a volunteer coach for the Geneva High School girls cross-country team.

In June 2016, then-assistant administrator Stephanie Dawkins was promoted to city administrator. It was expected the city council would hire someone to fill the assistant post, and even advertised the job.

But aldermen concerned about the state of the city's finances removed funding for the position from the budget.

Eight months into her new position, Dawkins told the council that things were being missed, and that division managers were forced to act like department managers, without guidance from her, due to a lack of time. The city ended up hiring an outside firm to negotiate some union contracts.

In February the council voted to reinstate the position after a consultant who studied the city's staffing agreed with what Dawkins had told the council and pointed out that most similarly sized suburbs in the area had an assistant manager or administrator.

McCready is being paid $117,270 a year.

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