One candidate in the running to become Little Rock Wastewater's chief executive officer withdrew his name from consideration this week, leaving four finalists remaining.
A subcommittee of the Little Rock Sanitary Sewer Committee -- the utility's governing body -- confirmed its selection of the five finalists at a meeting May 8. Those candidates were contacted this past weekend via email and extended an interview offer by Heidi Voorhees, president of the executive search firm hired by the utility to find the new CEO.
Voorhees followed the email up with phone calls, she said, and learned that one top candidate who appeared to be favored by sewer committee members had already accepted a job elsewhere.
Thomas Esqueda, a management consultant at Brown and Caldwell in Raleigh, N.C., accepted a job in California where his family lives. He's listed as having 23 years of relative experience, and the sewer subcommittee voted him as a finalist even after he initially had withdrew his name from consideration due to concerns of his application becoming public in a newspaper article.
Esqueda did not return a voice message left on his cellphone Thursday.
One other finalist, Craig Guth of Sherwood, had not returned Voorhees' email or calls as of 2 p.m. Thursday but by that evening he had contacted the consultant and accepted an interview. Guth is the deputy commander of the Little Rock District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"People go on vacation, business trips, work assignments. It's not unusual," Voorhees said by phone from her Illinois-based office Thursday before Guth responded to her attempts to reach him.
A secretary who answered the phone at the Little Rock Army Corps of Engineers office Thursday afternoon said Guth was on a "personal business trip." A phone call to Guth's cellphone went straight to voice message Thursday and a voice message seeking comment for this article was not returned by 5 p.m.
Wastewater's Interim CEO of Administration and Finance John Jarratt said he had instructed Voorhees to give the candidates until Tuesday to respond to the interview offer. The interviews are scheduled for June 17 and 18. The sewer committee is likely to interview the candidates privately in executive session. Each candidate will be questioned individually for about an hour.
In addition to Guth, the remaining finalists are Charles Logue, a director of technical services at Renewable Water Resources in Greenville, S.C.; Gregario Ramon, the assistant general manager at Central Arizona Project in Phoenix; and Jesse White, a senior program manager of wastewater treatment for Dallas.
The advertisement for the CEO position lists the salary at approximately $180,000. Former longtime CEO Reggie Corbitt made $187,875, plus benefits. He was the fourth highest-paid city official in Little Rock, following two top executives at Central Arkansas Water and the executive director of the airport.
Sewer committee members voted to fire Corbitt in January after a police investigation confirmed information reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette regarding Corbitt's business practices, use of public funds and what a police memorandum called "questionable expenditures."
The utility's process to hire a new CEO has come under scrutiny. The Democrat-Gazette reported last month its objection to the sewer subcommittee allowing Voorhees to give her report to them in private because the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act only allows certain individuals into executive sessions.
Wastewater attorney Amber Bagley advised subcommittee members at the April 9 meeting that they could continue hearing the report privately, even after the newspaper's objection and citation of the law. After an article the next day reported the committee's actions, Little Rock's mayor and city attorney said Voorhees' presence in executive session was improper and the sewer committee chairman called for a redo of the meeting. That took place May 8, when the subcommittee voted to bring in the same five candidates for interviews as it had at the initial April 9 meeting.
Jarratt said Thursday that the person selected as Wastewater CEO should be able to handle the public nature of the utility, including media scrutiny. During initial phone interviews, Voorhees questioned the candidates about their experience dealing with the public and local government, as well as their ability to handle controversial situations, according to her notes provided to the newspaper in response to a request under the state Freedom of Information Act.
The Sanitary Sewer Committee said at its monthly meeting Wednesday that it would likely pare down this group of finalists to a final three or two before selecting a new CEO. The committee also instructed Jarratt to gauge the public interest in a town hall-style forum with the chosen final few.
Jarratt told the committee that Voorhees said some agencies have hosted public forums and some haven't. "It's been successful, and it's a been disaster, " he said.
Member Pat Miller smiled in response and said: "I think the potential for that is there."
Metro on 05/23/2014