NCLM Southern City Volume 71, Issue 3, 2021

League Program Connects Manager-less Towns with Interim Talent ENSURING CONTINUITY OF LEADERSHIP, THIS NCLM SERVICE HAS PROVEN EXTRAORDINARILY SUCCESSFUL. BEN BROWN NCLM Communications & Multimedia Strategist Jim Freeman retired. And went right back to work. There was almost no free will in the matter. Sure, Freeman, who managed an array of North Carolina cities and towns over the course of his career, could have declined—money wasn’t the situation. But he felt compelled. “We need to give something back,” said Freeman, who in retire- ment partners with the League’s on-staff human-resources con- sultants for placement as an interim manager in one of the many member cities and towns that may, at any given time, need one. “We’re here to give something back.” Under the council-manager form of government in North Carolina, the municipal manager is a statutorily required position. Per the always-growing forest of duties with the job, municipalities are methodical with the candidate pool and may take time to find the right, mutual fit. What the League does is connect those towns with experts able to serve as manager on an interim basis—insti- tutional knowledge-loaded retirees like Freeman, who has stood in for towns like Swansboro, Smithfield, Blowing Rock, Troutman, Catawba, and, the town he’d retired from in 2013, Havelock. “Each one is a little different,” Freeman said. “In some cases, they (the municipal government) wanted to do some basic changes. In other places, it was just keeping the boat afloat or guiding them through finding a new manager.” Hartwell Wright, a human resources consultant with the League, said it’s been a great program for retirees who’ve wanted to share what they’ve learned for the good will of it, or “just to keep them- selves sharp.” 42 SOUTHERN CITY QUARTER 3 2021