UNMATCHED COVERAGE
All this week the Journal-News is profiling the five candidates for the city manager position. Here are the days those profiles will appear in the newspaper and online:
TUESDAY: Cathy Davison
WEDNESDAY: Doug Adkins
TODAY: Jane Howington
FRIDAY: Les Landen
SATURDAY: Willie Norfleet
There’s a chance a familiar name may be returning to the area in a familiar capacity — but a different city.
Jane Howington, a former city manager in Oxford and assistant city manager in Dayton, is one of the five finalists for the city manager’s position in Middletown.
Howington and the other four candidates — Doug Adkins, director of community revitalization, Middletown; Cathy Davison, former city manager, Steubenville, Ohio; Les Landen, Middletown law director; and Willie Norfleet, city manager, Socorro, Texas — will be in town Friday and Saturday interviewing with city leaders, city council members and Middletown residents.
The public portion of the forum will be from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday in the City Council chambers in the lower level of the City Building.
Howington recently was in a similar situation when she interviewed to be city manager in Brunswick, Ohio. She was offered the job, then withdrew because “it wasn’t the right fit for me.”
She said this weekend with be a two-way interview: people will learn about her, and she’ll learn more about the Middletown area.
She called the city manager job “a great opportunity in a great community, a great region.”
City manager Judy Gilleland announced her retirement earlier this year and her last day is set for June 6, though she may stay longer to make the transition easier.
When it comes to city manager experience, Howington has the most of any of the candidates.
She has served as the city manager in Newport, R.I. since January 2012. She lists redevelopment initiatives including excess naval property, expansion of shipyard operations and a $12 million redevelopment of the International Tennis Hall of Fame as some of her accomplishments there.
Newport Mayor Stephen C. Waluk said Howington was chosen from a field of 119 applicants — 90 more than Middletown received — because of her “experience and expertise in developing an efficient local government.” At the time, he said he had been on city council for 10 years and Howington was the third city manager selection process he’d seen. He called her “the strongest candidate I’ve come across.”
Before that, she worked as city manager in Kalispell, Mont. for three years during which she tackled a number of difficult tasks, chiefly the city’s dire budget outlook. Under Howington, the city boosted its diminished cash reserve from $244,122 in 2009 to roughly $1 million in 2011. She also led a restructuring of city staff and consolidation of departments that was not always popular but “needed to be done,” she said.
She was involved in reaching a contentious collective bargaining agreement that kept seven city firefighters from being laid off, according to city officials. Whoever is Middletown’s next city manager will need to address similar concerns regarding public safety.
Howington admits that when a city manager walks into “an emergency situation” like she did in Montana, they sometimes have to make difficult decisions that upset some special interest groups. She calls that role a “change agent.”
“When you start putting your longevity above the needs of the community, it’s time for you to leave,” she said during a phone interview. “If you are more worried about your security than serving the community, then you’re not serving them very well.”
She also has ties in the Middletown area. From 1996 to 2000, she served as planning director in Oxford, where she also earned her master’s degree in public administration at Miami University. She served as Oxford’s city manager from 2000 to 2007, then was assistant city manager of operations in Dayton.
In the last 14 years, Howington, a native of Madison, Wis., has held four jobs in four cities.
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