Meet the candidates: Maricopa’s next city manager

Members of the public were invited Tuesday night to meet three finalists for Maricopa’s top staffing position.

On Monday and Tuesday, the city council conducted interviews in closed-door sessions with several city manager candidates.

Prior to a scheduled executive session meeting Tuesday evening, an open reception was held in the City Hall lobby where the candidates were able to mingle with members of the community.

The three finalists are Gregory Rose, the owner of a private consulting business, Sandi Wilson, current deputy county manager of Maricopa County and Trisha Sorensen, the city of Maricopa’s interim city manager.

A Sacramento-based recruitment firm conducted a nationwide search for the position. On Monday, the city council narrowed the candidate field from six to three.

The council will need to hold a public meeting to make a final decision.

InMaricopa.com had the opportunity to speak with the top three finalists Tuesday and learn about their visions for the city.

Sandi Wilson

Maricopa County’s current deputy county manager described the city as a “blank slate.”

“There is so much that can be done with this community and most of the opportunities that you get, you don’t really get from the ground floor,” Wilson said.

The Arizona native said a city that’s only 10 years old has great potential for developing its future.

Wilson has worked for Maricopa County for 20 years, and has served in her current role since 1998. She stepped into the role of acting county manager for about four months in late 2008 and early 2009.

Wilson recently was a finalist for the position of Pinal County manager, but did not make the cut when the board of supervisors decided to narrow the candidate field from four to two.

Transportation and economic development are the two top issues Wilson said she would focus on if the council decided to grant her the job.

Bringing in big employers to the city could be accomplished once transportation issues are solved, she said. Wilson referenced completing the long-planned grade separation project over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks on John Wayne Parkway.

Wilson said there’s a difference with county government and city government in that “you’re a bit closer to the residents.”

“When people think about their government, they think about their city,” she said.

Wilson said the job in the city of Maricopa attracted her in the same way as the job in Pinal County – the potential for growth.

Trisha Sorensen

Sorensen already has taken the reins leading Maricopa’s city staff. She became Maricopa’s interim city manager in July after former city manager Brenda Fischer left for the top city position in Glendale.

Prior to stepping into the interim role, Sorensen said she made clear to council members she had no interest in taking a permanent position at the city.

But after several months of working, her mindset change.

“I told them now, ‘You know, there’s just something about Maricopa that just sucked me in,’” she said. “I said ‘I love coming to this community – coming to work every day. And working with my directors and tackling tough issues. And handling tough issues. And moving this organization forward.”

Before coming to Maricopa, Sorensen held the position of interim community services director in Coconino County. She also worked in Mesa for 13 years.

Sorensen said she has informed council members she will support whatever decision they make and will help with a transition if another candidate is chosen.

The interim city manager touched on two accomplishments in her short time with the city while speaking with members of the media. First, she said she has boosted employee morale.

“I think employees are more open and happier now than they were,” she said, adding she has an “open-door policy” in which they can come and speak to her anytime.

Second, Sorensen said major projects have not been delayed during her time with the city.

“And a lot of that is due to the great staff here and just making sure we know what council priorities are and just pushing those priorities, and making sure we’re putting resources where we need to.”

When asked about staff turnover the city has experienced with top level positions in the past year, Sorensen said it’s a difficult issue to address because the reasons for turnover are always different – from losing people to jobs with more pay to employees leaving to pursue other career paths.

“It’s more (of a question of) ‘How do you get the organization able to survive that turnover?’” she said. “You get consistency and continuity in operations through good policies and procedures and training … so no matter who leaves, other people know how to do the business.”

Sorensen shared similar views of the other candidates when speaking about Maricopa’s opportunity for the future.

“There’s just so much potential,” she said. “You don’t get that in a big city.”

Creating that vision of “where we want to go” has got to involve the public and the council, she said.

Sorensen added she told the council she will commit to five years if hired. She said the skill sets of a current city manager won’t be the same skill sets the community will probably need in five years’ time.

“Because the city will have changed so much in five years,” she said.

Gregory Rose

Not from Arizona, Gregory Rose is the most unfamiliar of the three candidates.

The Texas native currently is the principal agent of Rose and Associates, a consulting business he started that provides services to governments, nonprofits and private companies.

Rose served as the city manager for the city of North Las Vegas, Nev. for more than six years until 2009. He later served as the city administrator for Hyattsville, Md., for less than a year before putting all his focus on his consulting business.

In speaking with members of the media, Rose explained his decision to return to the public sector.

After his job in Hyattsville, Rose said he saw an opportunity to step back and see if consulting was a field he could do long term.

“What I found is that I still enjoy this,” he said of being involved in city government. “I still enjoy, I think, in making a difference in having a more immediate impact than what you would otherwise have at maybe the federal and state level.”

When asked about his intentions to become city manager of Maricopa, Rose gestured to City Hall’s entrance.

“If you look out the front door, you see all that vacant property,” he said. “And that is just an amazing attractive – the things that you are capable of doing with that.”

Starting from the ground-floor – concentrating on developing infrastructure and getting businesses is what attracted him to the job, he said.

Rose also addressed questions from the media about his past positions, which seemed to end on sour notes, according to past news reports.

While Rose served the city of North Las Vegas, local media reported the city may have misused funds from a voter-approved tax intended to finance the hire of new police officers. It was found the city started funding some officers already on payroll using the tax money.

At the time, Rose told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the mistake stemmed from “a simple coding error.”

There was also criticism in the media about North Las Vegas not hiring as many officers with the fund as originally planned. Rose said Tuesday it was the recession that caused the city staff to make adjustments to those plans.

Rose said the controversy was not the reason he left North Las Vegas.

***ADVERTISEMENT***“It really didn’t play a role in that whatsoever,” he said. “There was a new city council. They had their own values. I had worked there for nine-plus years. I think it was a good separation – no hard feelings on either side.”

Local media in Hyattsville, Md. reported Rose had been criticized by council members on his work performance before he left the position of city manager in October 2011.

Rose explained Maryland has a “stronger mayor form of government.” He said a newly elected mayor in the city had different values than what he and a previous mayor shared.

“And they needed to be able to bring someone on board who shared those values,” he said.