No start date for Naperville parks director
The moving target that was a start date for the Naperville Park District's new executive director has gone into hiding.
Last month, the board was talking about making an offer to someone by October. Then, after hiring a search firm, the start date was proposed for sometime between Jan. 1 and Feb. 1 of 2008. But after Wednesday's near 90-minute confab with a representative from the search firm, a planned start date has been scratched altogether.
"My experience has been lately that by the time we get to a job offer, (a start date) never matches up with what you want," said Greg Ford, vice president of Lake Bluff-based The PAR Group. "There are many variables that affect it."
Part of the timeline for picking and interviewing candidates for the job was set Wednesday. The board will get a list of 10 to 15 potential finalists from the search firm by Nov. 30. The board will decide Dec. 3 on the five or six finalists to interview the weekend of Dec. 15 and 16.
Board President Kristen Jungles said it's unlikely an offer would be made to a candidate that weekend.
The district has been without a full-time executive director since Barbara Heller left in March after an ill-fated recreational center proposal disintegrated under public disapproval and board in-fighting. Heller held the post for nearly 2½ years.
The majority of commissioners agreed it is in the best interest of the district for the board to take the necessary time to ensure the best candidate is chosen for the job.
"We've got to end the revolving door that exists upstairs," Jungles said. "The board needs to take the right amount of time to get it right. If we ask the right questions now, we don't have to go through the process again in two years."
She said the park staff has complained to her that in nine years there have been 11 different people who have held the title of park district executive director.
Ford told the board the selected candidate could be expected to stay with the district five to seven years, if not longer.
The board also decided to offer a salary in the range of $145,000 to $150,000. And candidates won't need to have educational degrees in park district management. Experience managing parks and recreation programs will be preferred.
They are also going to require that the new director move into the city within a year of being hired.
Ford said his firm would soon post the job nationwide. He expects to get 60 to 70 applications beside the dozen or so the district has already received from its job posting.