City continuing search for city manager, also needs public works director

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

The City of Columbia Falls is in the second round of its search for a city manager.

The council recently did not extend an offer to initial candidate Dennis Stark after a background check.

Stark was the subject of an ethics investigation when he was county manager for Lyon County, Nevada, and ultimately was sanctioned $1,000 by the Nevada Commission on Ethics in 2012.

Stark was county manager for Lyon County from 2007 to 2010.

The case centered around whether Stark improperly used his position as county manager to try to preserve his wife Sharon’s job within the county’s library system.

The commission ultimately found that Dennis Stark did act improperly.

Council first offered Stark the position on a 3-2 vote back in April, but that was contingent on an acceptable background check.

Longtime city manager Susan Nicosia will retire June 30.

It’s not clear whether the city council can hire a manager before she leaves. In the initial search there was a second candidate that ultimately dropped out of the running.

The starting salary for the city manager position is listed at $110,000 to $135,000, depending on experience.

The city also needs a public works director and will also need a chief of police by August.

Public Works Director Chris Hanley left his position recently to go back to work in the private sector, while Peters is retiring Aug. 1 after eight years as chief in Columbia Falls and years of service before that at the Whitefish Police Department.

The search to fill those two positions is underway as well.