Watertown council to begin city manager search talks

Watertown City Council members will meet Tuesday to talk with one another for the first time about what they should do next regarding their decision three weeks ago not to renew City Manager Mary M. Corriveau’s contract.

Mayor Jeffrey E. Graham has scheduled the meeting to discuss how the City Council should proceed in finding a replacement for Mrs. Corriveau, whose contract will expire April 30.

The mayor has arranged to bring in former Ogdensburg City Manager John C. Krol to see if council members would like to hire him as a consultant to help them with the city manager search.

“He has a very good reputation and people think well of him,” Mr. Graham said, noting Mr. Krol has a lot of contacts who would help with networking.

If council members would like him to get involved, Mr. Krol could help them come up with a plan for an interim city manager, determine the extent of the search and decide how to advertise for the position.

Mr. Krol, who retired from the Ogdensburg position in 2005 after working there for 17 years, was a finalist for the Watertown city manager’s job in 2003 but took himself out of the running before Mrs. Corriveau was appointed.

Mr. Krol has said he has no interest in becoming the Watertown city manager or serving on an interim basis, Mr. Graham said. He would like to help only as a consultant, the mayor said.

Mr. Graham said Ogdensburg Mayor William D. Nelson suggested that Mr. Krol could help the council figure out how to go about a search.

Councilman Joseph M. Butler Jr. said Friday that “it’s City Council’s responsibility” to put together the search process, and that Tuesday’s session was a chance for the council “to open up and talk about” how to proceed.

The council will meet at 7 p.m. in the third-floor council chambers at City Hall, 245 Washington St., for the session that Mr. Graham has arranged as an adjourned meeting from the council’s regular meeting Monday.

On Jan. 17, council members voted 3-2 to notify Mrs. Corriveau that they are not renewing her contract for the $102,802-a-year job. They have not divulged specific reasons for their decision, only that the issue had been brewing as far back as her job review in 2010, when they did not give her a raise. In the past, they have criticized Mrs. Corriveau for having communication problems with them and not following through with city initiatives.

Last spring, council members criticized Mrs. Corriveau after discovering major financial and bookkeeping problems in the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.