FIRST CITY MANAGER CANDIDATE VISITS

City manager finalist Jim C. Allan sized up Cape Girardeau's city facilities on the run Friday.

"I saw them at about 50 mph," he quipped after being interviewed for two hours by the City Council.

The interview took place behind closed doors at City Hall.

Allan was the first of five finalists to be interviewed for the job. Another finalist will be interviewed Wednesday, followed by three others between Aug. 8 and 17.

The new manager will replace J. Ronald Fischer, who retired Thursday after seven years of guiding the city government.

The city staff took Allan on a daylong tour of the city, giving him a glimpse of everything from pools to police.

"It was wonderful," said the bespectacled Allan, who is city manager of North Bend, Ore. The Pacific coast community is similar in size to Cape Girardeau.

Allan, 50, was impressed with the city's commercial areas and plans for a riverboat gambling development. He said the proposed casino could spur business growth downtown.

Allan said he realizes that some citizens oppose gambling developments.

He negotiated an agreement that brought an Indian tribe-run casino to North Bend. The casino opened in May despite opposition from church groups.

Allan has a son who lives in Cape Girardeau, although he declined to reveal his name. This was Allan's first visit to Cape Girardeau.

Still, Allan said he is familiar with Midwestern towns. "I was born in Iowa and lived in Omaha, Neb. I have a sense of what the Midwest is about," he said.

Allan expressed interest in the Cape Girardeau job, in part because the city has a reputation of having a professional staff.

He said he has a team management philosophy when it comes to running municipal government.

He described himself as being able to lead and to be counted on as a city manager. A city manager has to make hard decisions, he said.

Allan said the press needs to be positive about city government.

He has served as city manager of North Bend since April 1991.

He previously has held city manager posts in three other communities in Oregon and Utah, dating back to 1982.

The other city manager finalists are Jeffrey Broughton, city manager of Oak Ridge, Tenn.; T. Michael McDowell, city administrator of Creve Coeur; Michael Miller, a management consultant and former city manager from Ferguson; and Larry Stevens, city manager from Pittsburg, Kan.

Mayor Al Spradling III said the council will interview all the finalists about their backgrounds and management philosophies.

"In our questioning, we are not trying to sell the city; we are trying to have them sell themselves as to why they want to be city manager," he said.

Spradling said the council hopes to make a final decision by late August.