Professional posts remain to be filled
If City Manager Matt Zimmerman has his way, Emporia’s new zoo director will bring a broader base of skills to the job. He’d like the new city engineer to bring the same kind of results Interim City Engineer Mike Novak is bringing while spending just two days a week in Emporia.
The recent opening of those two prominent city positions means city staff is in something of a transitional phase. Keith Beatty resigned as city engineer in March, saying he wanted to resume a career in the private sector. Steve Trebilcock resigned from his post as director of the David Traylor Zoo on June 18, declining comment on his decision.
From Zimmerman’s point of view, marketing will be a key component of the new zoo director’s skill set. He said he and Assistant City Manager Mark McAnarney had been looking at ways to improve marketing of the zoo, and the city wants to work with Emporia Friends of the Zoo more closely to get a better consensus on what the zoo’s priorities are.
“I think Steve did work very well with EFOZ, don’t get me wrong, but we couldn’t always necessarily agree or come to some consensus on that,” Zimmerman said. “I think maybe we want to look for someone who has more marketing experience, maybe someone with more breadth of knowledge in zoology.
“Steve’s area of expertise was ornithology, but the zoo is wider than that. And I think Steve had a lot of knowledge, don’t get me wrong, but I think we want to take a look at someone with a little more breadth of experience. I know EFOZ has expressed that to me.”
Asked if Trebilcock was given a choice to resign or be fired, Zimmerman said it was the city’s policy not to comment on personnel issues. But he said it was no secret that a better fit could be found both for the zoo and for Trebilcock.
Cindy Detwiler, president of EFOZ, said she wouldn’t comment on whether the organization expressed to the city that it wanted to see a new zoo director. She said EFOZ would like to have the incoming zoo leader be someone who would work well with the organization. Asked if there was any issue with Trebilcock working with EFOZ, she said, “I’m not going to answer that.”
Zoo Foreman Lisa Keith is serving as interim zoo director. Zimmerman said many of Keith’s job duties will be the same as in her regular job, including overseeing the day-to-day care of the animals and having a hand in educational and promotional activities.
“At this time, I’m handling both positions,” Keith said. “Although I’m going to be delegating a lot of the work to my full-time keepers, Ursula Davis and Kate Weaver, and they’ll be taking on more workload.”
She said she could be interested in becoming the permanent zoo director.
Keith’s counterpart in the interim city engineer’s position is in familiar territory in Emporia. Novak served as city engineer from 1988 to 1993, when he left for the same position in Lenexa. He now works in the Kansas City area for Wilson & Company Engineers and Architects, which reached an agreement with the city of Emporia for Novak to provide his services beginning in April. He’s usually in Emporia two days each week.
“The projects are a little different (than 15 years ago), but the locations are familiar, and many of the drainage issues and those kinds of things are still here, and are still areas that the city hasn’t been able to get in a position to affect much change in yet,” he said. “But it’s familiar territory, just kind of doing many of the same kinds of things that I did when I was here back in the ’70s and ’80s.”
Zimmerman recently said Novak was doing such a good job that it had been easy for him to put off the search for a permanent city engineer. Among other projects, he cited Novak’s work on such construction ventures as the Kansas Turnpike interchange and the 15th and Industrial Road left-turn lane. The Kansas Department of Transportation recently agreed to kick in another $75,000 to the 15th and Industrial project, which Zimmerman said should significantly reduce the number of accidents there as people turn into Dolly Madison and the Flinthills Mall.
“He knew what kind of data KDOT needed, went to the police department, got that data, sent it to the right person at KDOT, got them to review it and agree that this was a worthwhile project and kick in some additional money,” Zimmerman said.
Novak doesn’t believe he has any interest in taking the job permanently, calling himself “kind of retired,” and Zimmerman acknowledged that Novak is anxious to see a permanent hire.
“He doesn’t want (his tenure) to be six months, which is understandable,” Zimmerman said. “I think it also goes to show the value of having a city engineer right on staff. I just gotta get it together and get some ads out. I guess it’s been a little easier to deal with other issues.”
Zimmerman previously said the city would probably advertise the zoo director position in professional journals and work with EFOZ to determine who would earn the permanent job.
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Posted by MelissaGarrison (anonymous) on July 2, 2008 at 6:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I think Lisa Keith would be an excellent choice to fill the zoo director position. I hope they take into consideration the way she handled the bird incident as interim director, coupled with the fact that she has worked for the zoo for years. She has a deep compassion for all animals and I really think she deserves the job.
Posted by pizza (anonymous) on July 3, 2008 at 1:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'd sure vote for Lisa. She knows the job, she knows the people she would be working with and they know her.
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