Meet the candidates tonight
The Oro Valley Town Council will hold an open session tonight starting at 5pm. The two manager finalists, Jeff Wilkins and Larry Dorr, will present their case to the Council. Residents are invited to view the session in person or online. Then, the town invites residents to "...provide feedback that will help the Council make this important decision." This can be done in person at the meeting or by completing a digital comment card. Digital comment cards are available between 5pm and midnight.
A first time event
This is the first time that Oro Valley is allowing residents the opportunity to do this. Prior Councils selected former town managers Mary Jacobs, Greg Caton, David Andrews, and Chuck Sweet with no community involvement. In addition, a few residents will submit one question to each candidate. These members were selected by the each councilmember.
Who are these guys anyway?
The town has provided a brief bio on the two candidates, Jeff Wilkins and Larry Dorr. We published that last week. Both Wilkins and Dorr have social media accounts on Linkedin, the site for professionals. However, neither account is active.
According to his Linkedin [Social media web site for professionals] account, Wilkins was County Administrator for Kendall County (Il) for fifteen years. Then, he was Interim Finance Director for six months for the City of DeKalb until October 2017. After that ,Wilkins joined the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) as Director of Administration. Though his Linkedin profile states that he his currently working there, the SWACO web site does not list him as an employee. The profile the town released indicates that he is not currently employed.
According to one news report, Wilkins left his Kendall County Administrator position (Source) for mutual reasons. According to Kendall County Board Chairman Scott Gryder, there was new leadership and it was "... good for everybody to move in a new direction." Wilkins salary at that time was $125,000. The county's budget of about $96 million is comparable to Oro Valley's budget. Like Pima County, Kendall County is finance by a property tax. (Source) Oro Valley does not have a property tax. The town was founded on never having one. Residents have always rejected such.
A few months ago, Wilkins was one of three finalists for County Administrator of Indian River County in Florida. He was not selected as a finalist.
Larry Dorr
Larry Dorr is the Deputy City Manager/Chief Financial Officer for the City of Westminster Co. Westminster is located nine miles north-northwest of Denver. The City is much larger than Oro Valley. It's expenditure budget is about $260 million. The town employs more than 1,000 employees. Westminster has 116,000 residents. The Westminster budget includes operations that are similar to those of Oro Valley. For example, the budget includes a water department, a police department and golf. (source)
Dorr has been looking to leave his position in Westminster for some time. He lost out as candidate for Larimer County (Co) Administrator in 2022. That would be just two years after he joined Westminster.
Dorr served for sixteen years as Finance Director for the City of Lakewood Co. Lakewood is also larger than Oro Valley. Their budget is more than $200 million. The City population is three times that of Oro Valley
Do these two really fit?We are surprised that these are the two best candidates that resulted from the national search. They have experience in a much larger organizations than Oro Valley. The Oro Valley town manager job is really a step back in their career.
