City picks 5 admin finalists

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

The City of Clarendon will interview five men for the position of City Administrator during a called meeting this Saturday, January 24, at the Burton Memorial Library.

The Board of Aldermen reviewed the applications of six men and one woman at their regular meeting last Tuesday, January 13, and selected the finalists to be interviewed.

The candidates are 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 David Dockery, public works director in Johnson City.

Dockery was a finalist for Clarendon’s administrator position in 2010 but withdrew his name from consideration before he was interviewed. City Hall said this week that it has no record of why Dockery withdrew five years ago.

Kyle Ingham of the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission led the board discussion of the applicants Tuesday and pointed out what he saw as strengths and weaknesses of each application without mentioning candidates by name.

Ingham said he was disappointed by the number of candidates interested in the job, but he said two factors were working against the city. Currently five Panhandle cities are looking to fill this position, and the fact that Clarendon’s position is a city administrator instead of a city manager also makes it less attractive to applicants.

A city manager is considered a more prominent position, and the difference between that title and a city administrator largely comes down to a manager having the authority to hire and fire whereas an administrator has that authority through the mayor, Ingham said.