The City of Keokuk will conduct a second search for its next city administrator.
The first search failed after applicants did not meet qualifications, according to Mayor Kathie Mahoney.
“The city interviewed three different candidates for the position of city administrator and did not feel that any of those three met the needs for our community,” Mahoney said.
“The council and the personnel committee did not want to just settle on anybody to fill somebody's shoes.”
Former Keokuk Police Chief Dave Hinton was appointed as the interim city administrator last fall after Cole O’Donnell resigned. Hinton had agreed to serve from Jan. 1 through June 30. Hinton said he has agreed to continue serving while the city keeps searching for a permanent replacement.
“They asked if I would just stay on month-to-month, as long as they were making progress, and we agreed with that,” Hinton said.
Mahoney said the city is working through a taskforce and is writing a new job description for the position.
“We're just going to have to take our steps as they go, and hopefully it won't take us too long,” she said.
“But I do think that the wonderful council we have and our department heads that are doing a great job and are encouraging the personnel committee to not just settle, and I don't think we should. I think we should get the best person for Keokuk at the table.”
O’Donnell served as city administrator from 2018 to 2023. He initially submitted his resignation in March 2023, but the city council rejected it.
The council eventually accepted O’Donnell’s resignation last September. He left Keokuk at the end of December.
O’Donnell has declined to comment about his reasons resigning.
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