Job Posting - City Manager

City Manager

Organization: Rifle, Colorado
Salary: The compensation for the City Manager job is highly competitive and includes a generous fringe benefit package.
Close Date: September 5, 2017

Job Description:

Rifle is where the Classic West lifestyle of ranching, hunting and fishing meets the New West lifestyle of mountain biking, ATVing and water sports. Rich with western heritage and history, many downtown businesses are located in historic buildings.

Situated on Interstate 70, Rifle is conveniently located an hour from Grand Junction, 90 minutes from Aspen, and three hours from Denver. Outdoor Life Magazine ranked Rifle 17th of 200 towns as the best place in the US for outdoor sports enthusiasts. Rifle offers an affordable outdoors lifestyle with a vibrant community feel and has access to everything great about Colorado. At an elevation of 5,300 feet, the climate in Rifle is mild and moderate in both winter and summer allowing for year round recreation. Though Rifle has a small town feel, it has modern and urban-quality amenities such as the Ute Theater and Events Center, Brenden Theatres, City parks, amphitheaters, restaurants, excellent hospital facilities and a historic downtown.

The City of Rifle is a home-rule charter city and has operated under the council-manager form of government since 1963. The City Council consists of seven Council Members elected at-large to four-year overlapping terms. Elections are held in September on odd numbered years on a nonpartisan basis. The City Council elects a Mayor for a two-year term and the Mayor appoints a Mayor Pro Tem for a two-year term. City Council Members can serve no more than two consecutive four-year terms. The current Rifle City Council is the only one in Garfield County whose majority consists of females.

The City Council appoints a City Manager who is responsible for recommending the budget to the City Council and for hiring and providing managerial leadership to City staff. Rifle has had seven City Managers in 54 years all of whom left voluntarily with one exception.
Rifle is a full-service municipal operation with 90.5 FTE’s not including temporary seasonal employees. The City does not have any employee unions and does not conduct collective bargaining. In addition to the City Manager, the City Council appoints the City Attorney, Municipal Judge, and Prosecuting Attorney who works on a contractual basis. The current City budget is $34.5 million.
The minimum job requirements are: 1) Masters of Public Administration, Business Administration, or closely related field; and 2) seven years’ experience evidencing ability to manage full-service local government; equivalent combinations of education and experience considered. In addition, the following are the desired professional and personal attributes for Rifle’s next City Manager: excellent human relations skills with an ability to relate to and communicate effectively with all stakeholders; a visionary leader who embraces strategic planning; strong economic development and public-private partnership track record; high community visibility and engagement in civic activities and events; successful track record of obtaining grants; understands dynamics of smaller rural communities and the importance of regular face-to-face communication with stakeholders; open to discussing new ideas with residents and patience to deal with a variety of opinions on issues; a can-do attitude with willingness to be creative and take calculated risks; experienced in providing municipal services to non-English speaking residents is a plus; a data-driven decision maker; and someone who will honor the rich history of Rifle.

The compensation for the City Manager job is highly competitive and includes a generous fringe benefit package. The City will pay reasonable and customary moving expenses for the next City Manager who is required to live within Rifle’s City limits.
TO APPLY: Please send your resume and cover letter with current salary by September 5, 2017 to pwconsulting@cox.net. For additional information about this job, please contact: Mr. Paul Wenbert, Western Regional Manager, Slavin Management Consultants, Mesa, Arizona 480-664-2676, pwconsulting@cox.net or Mr. Robert E. Slavin, President, Slavin Management Consultants, 770-449-4656, slavin@bellsouth.net.

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY RECRUITER/EMPLOYER

Download a comprehensive profile information document (PDF)