The City of New Westminster is working through a process to find a new city administrator.
Joan Burgess, the city's director of human resources, said the city received more than a hundred applicants from across the country for the chief administrative officer's position. A selection committee, which includes the mayor, two councillors and two alternates, will make a recommendation to city council.
"We would anticipate the process to be concluded by early spring," she said.
City administrator Paul Daminato is set to retire Jan. 31, 2013. Because it's expected that the new administrator would be selected in late February or early March, there will be no overlap between the current and future administrator.
"We have had directors acting for the CAO before during vacation absences," Burgess said. "We would take that approach."
Burgess stressed that it's early days in the process to hire a new administrator.
"We are not there yet," she said about interviews. "We haven't short listed at all. We are at the beginning."
Burgess said the city received "excellent interest" from "excellent candidates", something she attributes to the city's pursuit of innovative projects and progressive management style.
New Westminster city council will have the final say on who is named as the next city administrator.
Wright said the city has a "strong core management" team that can fill in as administrator until the position is filled. He said he'd prefer to take time and hire the right person for the job than rush and make the wrong decision.
Although former mayor Helen Sparkes and her council appointed Daminato as Ken Winslade's successor as city administrator in 2002, Daminato has worked side-by-side by Wright, who was elected mayor in the November 2002 election.
"He is a realist, yet he is visionary," Wright said. "We have had a good partnership."
