The Bulloch County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday acted to contract Pracademic Partners, a firm based in Livonia, New York, and led by Dr. Ian Coyle, a former county administrator who has taught university public administration classes, to conduct a search for a new Bulloch County manager for a search fee of $26,500.

Expected to take eight to 12 weeks to complete, the search comes with the firm’s guarantee to conduct a replacement search at no cost if the manager hired leaves before 12 months have passed.

Pracademic Partners was one of 10 search firms that submitted proposals in response to Bulloch County’s advertised request by Feb. 20. Interim County Manager Cindy Steinmann, who recently submitted her resignation from that role and from service with the Bulloch County government effective April 9, presented a summary of the proposals and recommended Pracademic during the commissioners’ 8:30 a.m. March 18 regular meeting.

Chairman David Bennett had asked her to review the proposals and make a recommendation.

“The thing about this is it’s not apples-to-apples,” Steinmann said. “Every company offers a different type of package, so I went through all of those and provided you with some feedback on that. The one that I think offers the best package is Pracademic Partners. It’s a cost of $26,500. It was one of the very few that actually lumped all of the services into one fee. A lot of the other ones had add-ons and all sorts of things attached.”

The guarantee of a second search at no cost was “another thing that made them attractive,” she added. On the chart commissioners received summarizing the proposals, only Pracademic’s guarantee was described as “Replacement search at no cost within 12 months.”

The nearest similar warranty was summarized as “12-month guarantee at no charge except expenses” for a firm named FGP, which offered to perform an 11- to 15-week search, which like Pracademic’s would extend through assisting with interviews. But FGP’s stated cost was $40,000. Other firms variously offered a partial guarantee with a reduced cost, such as half-price, for a second search or a second search free with various limitations or exclusions, or said they were willing to negotiate a guarantee.

Requested fees, charted as costs for the “basic scope” of work, ranged from $25,000 for a company named Corporate Plus to do a one-month search including background checks and behavioral interviews for pre-screening of “short-list” applicants, to $45,000 for a firm called DWC to conduct a 19- to 23-week search extending through finalist interviews and contract negotiations. Two firms’ fees were stated as percentages, apparently to be based on a year of the new county manager’s salary. Codeforce 360 wanted “25% of hire” for a nine-week search; JNX Partners, “20% of hire” for a 10- to 14-week search.

These terms are quoted from the county summary, not directly from the companies’ proposals.

Promised services

In the chart, the summary states that Pracademic will “define candidate criteria; develop position details including compensation; develop brochures;” do “strategic marketing, screen candidates;” perform “background checks; credential verification, reference checks; develop evaluation and interview criteria; assist with interviews” and “contract negotiations.”

After Steinmann said she was recommending Pracademic and asked commissioners if they had any questions, Commissioner Nick Newkirk asked if hiring a company “from up in New York state” to assist a county “down here for the Southern part of the U.S.” could be an issue. He also observed that most of the firms had been from “up North or either out West.”

“I don’t,” Steinmann said. “I mean, there were some that were in the Atlanta area, but for the most part any recruitment services are going to be from metro areas. But … I think that, now, if you’re just looking for an application that’s in Georgia then, yeah, that will be an issue, but I think you’re limiting yourself if that’s your only thought process.”

Typically, representatives of the search firm will visit Bulloch County to talk to commissioners and get their feedback on what they are looking for, then develop materials and then “market that out there all over the place,” she said.

Chairman Bennett spoke in support, observing that Coyle and his company have promised to perform all of the background checks, among other tasks.

“So it saves us a lot of time and labor as far as having to go and do a lot of that research on our own,” Bennett said.

Commissioner Ray Mosley made the motion to contract with Pracademic Partners. Commissioner Anthony Simmons seconded, and the vote was 6-0.

Later Tuesday, Steinmann said she did not have a set date for the firm to begin the work but would be notifying them that they have been selected.

Coyle, who holds a Doctorate of Public Administration and served as county administrator of Livingston County, New York, from 2009 to 2024, stated in his proposal that he will be project manager for the Bulloch County search.

Steinman’s new job

Steinmann has served as interim Bulloch County manager since Dec. 3, following the resignation of Tom Couch, who had been county manager since 2004. In accepting the interim role, Steinmann specified that she would not be a candidate for the permanent job but would assist in getting a search underway. She had joined the county staff as a management analyst in December 2014, then was promoted to special projects manager in 2018 and to assistant county manager in the spring of 2021.

She submitted a resignation letter from the interim manager role and county employment to the commissioners March 7, giving a departure date of April 9. At the time of her announcement, she did not reveal where she was going next.

But in an informal interview Tuesday, Steinmann said she is taking a job “in the private sector,” with a company that does consulting work for local governments, such as cities and counties. She wasn’t naming the company yet.