City taps Dockery as administrator

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

David Dockery was named the next Clarendon City Administrator during the regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen Tuesday night, January 27.

City officials made the decision after meeting behind closed doors for about 40 minutes. Dockery later accepted the position and is expected to meet with Mayor Larry Hicks soon to finalize contract details.

Hicks said Wednesday morning that a start date for the former Johnson City administrator has not been set.

The Board of Aldermen held a marathon day-long meeting Saturday, January 24, and interviewed five candidates for the city’s top job. Mayor Larry Hicks said the city had strong candidates to choose from.

City Secretary Machiel Covey said Saturday’s interviews at the Burton Memorial Library were all held in open session with the board only going in to closed session periodically to discuss the candidates.

“Each one was given the choice of if they wanted it closed or open, and they were fine with it being open,” she said.

Covey said the board met from 10 a.m. to about 4:40 p.m. with a break for lunch. Individual interview times ranged from about 25 minutes to over an hour.

Hicks said having the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission assist with the search and interview process was invaluable to the city.

Candidates on Saturday were G.A. “Buster” Poling, Jr., former city manager of Bovina; Peter D. Kampfer, Alamosa, Colo., county administrator; Jeff Poindexter, a wastewater treatment plant operator in Amarillo; Gary Campbell, self-employed online marketing businessman and Clarendon’s representative on the Greenbelt Water Authority board; and Dockery, the former city administrator in Johnson City.

Dockery was a finalist to be Clarendon’s administrator in 2010 but withdrew prior to interviewing. Hicks said Dockery was persuaded to keep his job at that time by Johnson City officials due to some projects that were underway in that city.