Finalist drops bid for city manager

Jay Krauss is second of three candidates to withdraw from Kalispell council's search

A second applicant for Kalispell city manager has withdrawn his candidacy.

That leaves only one applicant, and will delay Kalispell's final-selection stage until more finalists are picked.

Lewiston City Manager Jay Krauss withdrew his application because he was uncomfortable with the City Council interviewing him in public Friday, March 20, in accordance with Montana's open-meetings law, Interim City Manager Myrt Webb said Sunday.

Krauss's application was alive through at least late Friday afternoon.

Also late last week, another city manager finalist - David Johnston of Rantoul, Ill. - withdrew his candidacy. Johnston was village administrator of Rantoul from September 2004 to February 2008.

That leaves only Robert Stockwell, a Riverton, Utah, financial adviser who was the city manager of Sunnyside, Wash., from 2004 to 2007.

In the past, Stockwell had been city manager for Great Falls; Alamogordo, N.M.; West Jordan, Utah; Eureka, Calif.; and Sparks, Nev. He also was the chief administrative officer for the city of Provo, Utah.

Because Stockwell is the only finalist, city officials canceled Thursday's public meet-and-greet sessions with the applicants and Friday's public interviews of the candidates by the council.

Stockton will remain a finalist for the post, Webb said. But Webb quickly polled City Council members, who said they want the search committee to come up with more than one finalist before going to final interviews.

Originally, the search committee and city officials had interviewed at least 10 applicants by phone before picking three finalists.

Krauss has family and a vacation home in Eureka, which prompted his interest in Montana. He has been Lewiston's city manager since February 2006. Krauss previously was city manager of Sturgeon Bay, Wis., city administrator of Niagara, Wis., and village administrator of Huntley, Ill.

He recently was an unsuccessful finalist for the city manager's job in Whitefish. He has been a finalist for five city manager posts since he moved to Lewiston.

The annual salary range for a new Kalispell city manager is from $81,553 to $114,175. The manager has operational authority for a city of roughly 20,000 people with a $52 million budget and about 190 city employees.

The council fired former City Manager Jim Patrick in October for undisclosed reasons. Indications were that no single major reason was behind the termination, but rather stylistic differences and dissatisfaction with how some projects were carried out.

Webb, of Columbia Falls, became Kalispell's interim city manager that same month.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com