By Derek Spellman
dspellman@joplinglobe.com
NEOSHO, Mo. — Eyeing ongoing financial challenges, Neosho officials may turn to an interim city manager for a while before installing a permanent replacement for former City Manager Jan Blase.
Mayor Jeff Werneke said last week that city officials will be gathering more information on the possibility of using an interim city manager.
Blase was fired by the City Council on Feb. 22. He had been placed on paid suspension Jan. 26. At that time, the council installed police Chief Dave McCracken as acting city manager, and Werneke said neither McCracken nor the council envisioned the chief filling the role permanently.
An interim manager who would take over for McCracken would “relieve us of the urgency of getting someone in place” permanently and allow the city to proceed at its own pace, the mayor said.
“I support the decision,” Mayor Pro Tem Richard Davidson wrote in a Friday e-mail to the Globe. “It will take a number of months to do a proper and thorough search to find a permanent replacement. In the interim, I’d prefer someone who (has) experience in such a role. I also believe Chief McCracken would welcome the help and would prefer to get back into his department at some point in the near future.”
A timeline for the searches, both for an interim manager and a permanent one, has not been established. Werneke said a decision on whether to go with an interim manager also will depend on the applicants for that position.
Werneke acknowledged that some of the turmoil in Neosho in recent months — a deepening budget crunch and the controversy surrounding Blase — might not present the “most appealing” situation for someone to apply for the position permanently, at least right now.
And while the mayor said much of the tarnish on the city’s image during that time is unwarranted, he acknowledged that the city might have to resolve some of its financial issues as it courts applicants.
The council is forming a committee of residents to look at the city’s long-term financial status, including whether to recommend restoration of a city property tax. Blase said in January that the city likely would have to do that to avert insolvency in the long term.
The city’s annual internal audit is expected to be released within the next few weeks. A group of residents also has successfully petitioned the state auditor to review the city’s books. And the council still has to give final approval to proposals that would cut an additional $300,000 out of the budget and have the city assume an additional $1.725 million in debt.
“I think some of those things need to be put to rest,” the mayor said last week.
Under Blase, the city saw a total of $17 million in federal, state and private investment for a host of projects in just a few years. The city secured a string of grants and had been aggressive in tackling infrastructure problems that officials said had been unaddressed for years.
But in the months preceding his departure, Blase came under mounting criticism.
Last year, he acknowledged that the city’s fund for general operations (excluding the golf course and water and sewer services) had borrowed from a state loan earmarked for construction of airport hangars, and from hotel-motel tax revenue, water and sewer money, and sales taxes due the city’s tax increment financing fund. The borrowing of the hotel-motel tax revenue formed the basis of misdemeanor charges of official misconduct that were filed against Blase and former city Finance Director Bob Blackwood.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Unsolicited help
Neosho Mayor Jeff Werneke said the city has been approached by some individuals expressing an interest in being interim city manager. The city also has received unsolicited resumes, he said. The mayor declined to say who contacted the city or submitted resumes.
