The city of Pekin is two candidate interviews closer to finding a new city manager.
Mayor Mary Burress said the city council conducted both interviews during executive session at a special meeting Monday night. The candidates are Pekin’s interim city manager and police chief John Dossey and Quincy Deputy Mayor Jeff Mays.
Dossey and Mays were chosen from a pool of 20 applicants.
Burress said both are excellent, qualified candidates. Whoever is chosen will have the task of filling vacant positions in city staff that includes a finance director, an economic development director and a human resources director.
“We've got a lot of people that are doing double duty,” Burress said. “ So [the city manager is] going to have to work very hard to get the key positions filled.”
The second priority is raising city morale and bringing together a divided council. Burress said Dossey already has made some progress on this issue since taking over as interim city manager in May.
“We're working very hard to calm the waters and all of that,” she said.
If Dossey is chosen, he’ll hire the new police chief. Burress said he already has two candidates in mind.
The city council did not make a decision Monday night. Burress expects a result within the next week.
Dossey filled the position after the council voted to remove interim manager Bruce Marston in May. Marston took over for Mark Rothert, who was fired by the council last October.
