WORCESTER – The City of Worcester’s Request for Proposal for consulting services to find a new City Manager received just one qualifying bid.
The RFP opened on June 1 and closed on June 29, with GovHR USA the only executive search firm providing a bid.
Former City Manager Edward Augustus stepped down from the job on May 31 and Assistant City Manager Eric Batista has taken over as acting City Manager.
GovHR USA is a public management consulting firm with headquarters out of Northbrook, Ill. They are a certified Female Business Enterprise in Illinois and work only in the public and nonprofit sectors. They have conducted over 300 executive manager recruitments and have experience working in 41 states, including city executive positions in Maine, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The firm touts that one-third of the organizations they work with are repeat clients.
In the past three years, 16% of the candidates GovHR USA has placed in an executive position are diverse candidates (female, Black or Hispanic).
Joellen Cademartori, the chief executive officer and co-owner of GovHR USA, will lead the search of finding Worcester’s next city manager if they award GovHR USA the bid. Cademartori earned his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Worcester State University and Master of Public Administration at Northeastern University. From 1988 to 1993, Cademartori worked for the town of Northborough, holding the position of Asst. Town Administrator from 1992 to 1993.
Cademartori will be assisted by Michael Jaillet, vice president at GovHR USA. Jaillet was town administrator in Westwood, Mass. for 32 years. He also spent one year as a planning analyst for the town of Clinton.
GovHR USA was hired as the search firm in 2021 for a new town manager in Williamstown, Mass. They’ve served as the firm for dozens of municipalities in the Commonwealth for classification and compensation studies, including in Shrewsbury, Southborough, Sturbridge and Westborough.
GovHR USA has some experience in Worcester, as Cademartori and GovHR helped the lead the search for the Worcester Public Library’s director of libraries in 2020. The position went to Jason Homer. They list Worcester Public Library board president Stephanie Pasha as a reference on the firm’s proposal.
The proposal calls for a roughly three and a half months search process to find Worcester’s next city manager, which would include a brochure, advertising, recruitment, evaluation, interviews and more, with a candidate being appointed in week 13 or 14 of the search.
The full GovHR USA proposal will be presented on Tuesday night to the city council.
