Lamar City Administrator Search Narrows

Bill Pfeilsticker

Brent Lewis

Pat Merrill

The Lamar City Council is conducting in-person interviews of the three remaining candidates for the city administrator position today, June 17. All three attended the meet and greet session held Thursday night at the city’s Cultural Events Center, and offered introductory remarks about their careers and what they can offer the city of Lamar as the next administrator.

Mayor Roger Stagner said the council had close to 40 applications at the outset, and narrowed the list to six persons. He said three withdrew from running which left Brent Lewis, city manager of Minden, Nebraska; Pat Merrill, former city manager of Fort Morgan, Colorado and Bill Pfeilsticker, Lamar’s current deputy administrator for consideration by the council. Stagner said a decision won’t be made immediately, as further assessments on all three candidates will be made by the council following the Friday interviews. “We will probably do some more phone call questions before we come to a decision and make an offer,” he said. The mayor said he and another council member and city attorney Garth Nieschburg will iron out a contract offer for the selected candidate and go from there. Mayor Stagner said the process would probably take a couple more weeks. “We have three very qualified candidates,” he added.

Ron Stock, current city administrator, attended Thursdays meet and greet, and said his immediate future plans involve joining his wife who has been teaching in Monterey, California. Stock submitted his letter of resignation to the council in March, and targeted his last day with the city on July 8.

By Russ Baldwin