Rogers is set to select its top city staffer -- a position that has sat vacant since January 2007, when a newly installed City Council, in a controversial move, ousted the 22-year employee who held it.

The new city administrator will help lead the fast-growing northwest-metro city as it adjusts to a new mayor, prepares to annex Hassan Township and attempts to free itself of the title "leading Minnesota city for public subsidies."

"We definitely need to get someone in there," said City Council member Jamie Davis. "There are big changes on the horizon."

Last week, the city narrowed the candidates to three: Craig Dawson, former city administrator of Shorewood; Dan Donahue, former city manager of New Hope, and Steve Stahmer, current city administrator of Long Lake.

Vote is likely on Tuesday

The City Council will likely choose among them at its meeting Tuesday, city clerk Stacy Doboszenski said.

A vote would conclude a more than 18-month process that included two searches and a job offer to an out-of-state candidate, who declined it. In spring 2007, Jim Willis began as interim administrator -- a position that was intended to last six to nine months.

The candidates have faced questions from the council, city staff, department heads, Rogers citizens and representatives of the Hassan Town Board.

In separate, split votes this June, the Hassan board and the Rogers City Council decided to begin merging the city and the township through orderly annexation by January 2012.

"The person we hire is going to be working for a merged city," said Council Member Scott Adams.

In the meantime, Hassan Township will "share" the new city administrator's time, much like it already does with Rogers' city planner, he said.

When former administrator Gary Eitel held the job, the city administrator and city planner positions were combined. After the new council took office in 2007, that quickly changed.

In January 2007, the realigned council voted to replace Eitel -- who had become known for helping attract business to the city using tax-increment financing, or TIF, a complicated public subsidy often used to offset a developer's construction costs.

Since the late 1990s, Rogers has consistently led major Minnesota cities in its use of the subsidy, according to studies by the nonprofit Citizens League.

For example, TIF made up 32.5 percent of Rogers' total tax capacity in 2007. That's No. 1 among cities with more than $1 million of TIF, according to a Citizens League report.

In 2006, voters elected a slate of candidates who campaigned against such subsidies.

The candidates for city administrator have faced questions about TIF, said Adams, who's running against fellow Council Member Jason Grimm for mayor this fall.

But "although it's certainly an issue for the city, and for me, we're not necessarily making it an issue for the city administrator," he said.

Adams and Davis both said they're looking for a city administrator who effectively manages city employees and holds "professional standards" -- qualities they said interim administrator Willis re-introduced.

Jenna Ross • 612-673-7168