SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) - Interviews with 10 candidates vying to be the Metropolitan Planning Commission executive director will soon begin.
The Times reported (https://bit.ly/RZYBtg)the commission this past week accepted a subcommittee’s recommendation of the candidates, trimmed from an initial pool of 47.
Interviews for the executive director candidates are expected to happen no later than mid-June, commission chairwoman Lea Desmarteau said. The position has been vacant since former director Charles Kirkland retired after holding the post for more than 30 years.
Desmarteau said she would like to narrow the list to at least the top five candidates. None of the remaining applicants is from Louisiana.
“Some of the people in that 47 did not meet the qualifications at all,” she said.
The commission first advertised for the position in February.
Minimum qualifications include a bachelor’s degree in urban planning, public administration or a related field, at least five years of planning experience and a minimum of four years of supervisory work.
The top five candidates will come to Shreveport for interviews with a public forum in June, according to a schedule for the search process.
“We promised to do that not only for the public, but the commission and the City Council,” Desmarteau said.
Commissioner Winzer Andrews, who is also a member of the subcommittee, said in-house applicants were given equal consideration.
All of the 10 finalists are from out of state.
The remaining candidates are Robert Hunter, Plant City, Florida; Robert Massarelli, Titusville, Florida; Michael Warrix, Canton, Georgia; Thomas Lloyd Kerr, Suwanee, Georgia; Frank Duke, Norfolk, Virginia; Monique Coleman, Wichita Falls, Texas; Curt Freese, Henderson, Kentucky; Mark Sweeney, Austin, Texas; Frankie Legaux, Natchez, Mississippi; and Christian Schock, Wilmington, Ohio.
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Information from: The Times, https://www.shreveporttimes.com
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