Former Interim City Manager Bob Bell Is Here to Stay

Back in a with Patch, Interim City Manager Bob Bell said he was shutting out the full-time possibility of the city manager position. But after four months serving as the interim city manager, Bell accepted the appointment as the permanent city manager, citing a growing connection with the city.

“I knew that I didn’t want to just keep the ship afloat temporarily,” Bell said. “But that I wanted to continue leading and steering it.”

Bell admitted that his first month as interim city manager made him want the permanent position even less than when he started. It wasn’t until after the holidays that he said he could envision himself doing this as a long-term position.

“There was just this huge orchestra that I developed relationships with and I wanted to continue conducting it,” he said.

Bell stepped into the interim city manager position in November 2010 after former City Manager Peter Ingram suddenly resigned and received a substantial severance package of almost $208,000.

Bell’s salary is still being negotiated and will be one of the items on the Apr. 11 city council agenda, according to city spokesperson Malcolm Smith. However, Bell said that the salary would be “below the average” of what nine neighboring cities paid their city managers.

“We want to stay true to our message that we’re all facing cuts,” Bell said. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll be doing a below average job!”

He said he was looking forward to continuing the work he had done as the interim city manager, including analyzing the city's organization to determine where re-organization could occur and making more labor concessions with the unions.

“He was able to bring [the unions] to the table even when their contracts weren’t set to expire,” Mayor Jeff Ira said, identifying the union negotiations as one of Bell’s biggest accomplishments.

The council called off the initial recruitment effort for the city manager, a process it hadn’t delved too deeply into, Ira said.

“Why take a step backwards and lose all that time when we’re moving forward with economic development?” Ira said of the council’s decision to hire Bell. “Originally he thought he needed more experience, but as he started to do the job, he started really enjoying it and realized he could do it.”

Ira added that department heads had nothing but “glowing” praise for Bell. The day the announcement was made, Ira said he already received calls from Mike Reynolds, the Police Officers’ Association president, and Fire Chief Jim Skinner, approving the council’s decision.

“From a staff perspective, we’re all really looking forward to continuing his leadership and bringing consistency through these tough times,” Smith added.

“I’m more excited than you can believe,” Bell said. “This is a great opportunity to connect to and serve the community in a bigger capacity.”