- Hub staff

The City has begun the process of looking for a new City Manager as they prepare for the retirement of Wayne Ritchie next spring.

At Monday's council meeting, the steps for preparing a Request for Proposals (RFP) to engage an Executive Search Firm were laid out. The process of developing a job description, establishing a competitive compensation package, recruiting, interviewing and negotiating an employment contract, will likely cost between $20,000 and $40,000.

The City Manager is the council's only employee, and all other city staff, through their managers and directors, are ultimately responsible to the City Manager.

Ritchie spent 11 years with the City's Public Utility before becoming city treasurer (later called the director of finance) in 2001. He has been in the City Manager's position since Ruth Coursey left it in April 2015. Coursey's contract and the circumstances of the unplanned end to her 26 year career in municipal government allowed her to stay on the city payroll at full salary for another two years into her retirement.

Craig Curtis, Owen Sound City Manager from 1995 until 2007, just retired this spring from the same position in the City of Red Deer, Alberta. His successor has yet to be named.

The new Owen Sound City Manager will likely be named in April/May 2020. As mayor Ian Boddy said, "We have to get this right."