City manager contract still being negotiated

No signatures are on the bottom line yet, but negotiations continue between the city of Kalispell and its top pick for a new city manager.

Matt McKillip, the former mayor of Kokomo, Ind., and now a private business consultant there, said on Wednesday that he expected to wrap up those negotiations with Kalispell Mayor Pam Kennedy sometime Thursday.

"The mayor is back in the office tomorrow," McKillip said of a brief trip Kennedy took out of state this past week. "When she gets back tomorrow I committed to calling her. We had some negotiations before she left."

McKillip was in town with his family last week, meeting local people and checking into everything the area has to offer.

"It's a beautiful area. We found a lot we like," he said. They since returned home.

Kennedy returned late Wednesday and was in meetings all day Thursday, but left a message with the Daily Inter Lake saying she expected to talk with McKillip very soon.

"I hope to be able to visit with Matt this evening," Kennedy said, "and if not this evening, tomorrow morning first thing and then discuss it with the council on Monday.

"At this point in time I have no news to tell you other than I will be visiting with Matt."

McKillip said he would rather keep details of the negotiations between himself and Kennedy for now.

"What's on the table right now is a pretty fair deal," he said. "I said publicly in the interview process I am interested in the long term. I told them if they were looking for the short term I wasn't the person.

"That was the main point in the contract, to make sure it is the longest term possible on both parties," he said.

He and his wife are raising young children and are looking for a place they can grow up and stay settled. "For quality of life and the ability to raise my family, there'd be no point in moving several times," McKillip said.

McKillip said he has a second offer for another job in Indiana but declined to elaborate.

"We're evaluating that contract," he said. "We're at the same point as with Kalispell. We're at the point of deciding what's best for my family and the city."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com