Culver Town Council Concerned with Lack of Applicants for Town Manager's Position

Members of the Culver Town Council conducted a 90 minute work session last Friday (February 24) to discuss the Town Manager transition. 

Ginny Munroe, the current Town Manager submitted her resignation on December 14th following the actions of council members Bill Githens, Bill Clevenger and Bill Hamm to rescind the council’s commitment of $25,000 in 2023 as a public match for the Blue Zones Grant.  Initially she gave the council a date of February 10th.

During the week of February 13th Ripley told the Culver Clerk-Treasurer he did not have any qualified candidates for the Town Manager’s position.  Heim told the council there are a couple applications on Indeed but the town didn’t advertise the opening and she thought maybe H.R. Unlimited Resources did.  She was unaware if anyone had looked at those candidates.

Town Council President Bill Cleavenger asked Ginny Munroe what her plans were and she said she would stay on until the end of March.  She told him she was having a conversation with her prospective employer this week and should know more after that.

Council member Sally Ricciardi suggested getting a hold of the company they hired and find out where they are advertising the position and possibly look at other options including having the town do some of their own advertisements for the opening.

Cleavenger suggested giving H.R. Unlimited Resources a time frame.  He appeared to be disappointed in the results to date and the lack of communication.    

During the work session on Friday Munroe discussed several items she is working on the would need to be handed over to someone else if a Town Manager isn’t found within the next month or so. 

Special Event permits have been presented to the Town Council by the Town Manager.  It had been suggested that Amber Cowell, the Culver Park Superintendent could handle them because many of those event take place in the park. 

Monroe reminded council members that Amber is going into her busy season and it might not be ideal to put another duty on her plate.  She told the council they would need to contract with her to do the additional work. 

The Culver Redevelopment Commission (CRC) is currently working on the Broadband Fiber project with Surf Internet in Culver, the READI Grant award which provides infrastructure for the multi-residential development by Alan and Chris Collins, and the Culver Comprehensive Plan.   

It was suggested that Town Council member Sally Ricciardi who also sits on the Culver Redevelopment Commission and CRC President Marty Oosterbaan take over as the responsibilities of the Town Manger with the CRC.

The Town of Culver is undertaking a Comprehensive Plan update and has contracted with MACOG for all the public engagement and facilitating the surveys and meetings.  Typically, they meet with the Town Manager prior to the Comprehensive Plan meeting and Munroe said they may want to continue that with someone once she is gone.  She also said initially she was going to do a lot of the narrative writing for the plan update but she won’t do that work for free.  They can contract with MACOG, her or a third party for that massive writing project. 

Munroe said INDOT has two sidewalk/trail projects that are being bid together for better pricing, Lake Max phase III and the Steller project.  Her recommendation was to have Culver Utilities Superintendent Bob Porter who is INDOT certified and Troyer Group work on those projects until a Town Manager can be hired. 

Munroe told the Culver Town Council she’s received one qualified applicant for the Building Commission position.  An interview will be conducted this week.  Munroe said if she leaves before a person is hired the town may need to contract with the county for temporary assistance.