Salem city officials hoping to bring on a manager to help with violence reduction efforts ended up with no viable candidate and now have paused recruitment.
Hiring now likely won’t happen until later this year for a new position city officials intended to fill last spring.
During recruitment periods in April and in July, the city interviewed six candidates.
Three were offered the job, said Deputy City Manager Scott Archer. Two candidates accepted positions elsewhere and one was found ineligible after a background check, Archer said.
The job was described in the city’s April posting as a full-time community safety outreach program manager, and city officials said the job would have an 18-month duration. The monthly salary was listed between $6,566 to $8,821. The job posting closed roughly a month later in May.
“The second posting was the same as the first,” Archer said. “We didn’t change anything – and reposted it as soon as we could when the first posting didn’t result in a hire.”
The city expects to continue recruitment efforts after its consultant Ben McBride of the Empower Initiative delivers a comprehensive report to distill the results of the city’s community sessions and planning by law enforcement officials. The report is expected to consider community preferences and to define in detail how Salem should address gun violence that has surged in recent years.
The Salem City Council is expected to get the report in November.
The city hoped to have the program manager by early to mid-summer to participate in the community listening sessions, held between March and August.
Archer said the city will decide how to again recruit after McBride submits his report and the city learns the fate of additional grants it is seeking, Archer said.
“It’s going to be critical. It’s not just keeping it going, it’s getting it started,” Salem Mayor Chris Hoy said of the new city position. “We’ve just put the start of the groundwork in place with these community conversations, but now the work begins. So it is going to be critical for this position to get on board and coordinate and be that liaison between the community and the police to really keep this work moving.”
Hoy said he is aware of the city’s difficulties filling the role.
“For me, it is the person who can work with the police closely, and also work with the community closely and sort of be the bridge and the glue that brings all of the community together to work on this situation,” Hoy said. “To address community violence and to work on developing community with the people involved, and developing solutions. And hopefully prevention. That is really the key.”
Hoy said he understands why hiring could be difficult.
“We are in a challenging fiscal situation though, so I get that. We are asking people to come on board at a time when we can’t ensure their long-term employment,” Hoy said.
McBride was retained by the city to help tap into community sentiments about gun violence and frame a strategy to pull down the number of shootings. Now that those meetings have concluded, the next steps in the city’s violence reduction initiative involve shifting gears into community action and hiring a manager.
Archer said the information in McBride’s report could change the nature of the role.
“This position and its functions and its duties, basically, it is a work in progress. And we are still defining exactly what that is going to look like,” Archer said. “I think the timing ends up being really good for us even though we really wanted to get somebody in place.”
Archer said the program manager will serve as an intermediary between the community and the city, and more specifically, the police department. The coordinator will work out of the city manager’s office.
“It’s a position that’s working with and for the community, not just specifically the police department, to help us find solutions and create strategies which will come out of this report from the Empower Initiative that we are going to receive in the coming couple of months,” Archer said.
Archer said the short-term nature of the job could be one reason it is difficult to fill, but he also said the position has specific requirements.
“This is a unique position, and not a lot of people have that background. It brings together a bit of a mix of backgrounds in community engagement, understanding police work and violence, and how to find solutions,” Archer said. “It is not a typical, normal position.”
Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected] or 503-335-7790.
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Joe Siess is a reporter for Salem Reporter. Joe joined Salem Reporter in 2024 and primarily covers city and county government but loves surprises. Joe previously reported for the Redmond Spokesman, the Bulletin in Bend, Klamath Falls Herald and News and the Malheur Enterprise. He was born in Independence, MO, where the Oregon Trail officially starts, and grew up in the Kansas City area.
