City has short list to replace Koskinen

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A vetting committee set up by D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams is considering a short list of five candidates to replace City Administrator John A. Koskinen, who will leave office at the end of this month.

"The committee met for the first time last week and has already begun interviewing candidates for the job," said a source familiar with the committee.

According to sources close to the committee, the candidates are Herbert R. Tillery, deputy D.C. mayor for operations; Lloyd K. Jordan, a former D.C. government worker; Robert Bobb, former city manager for Oakland, Calif.; Teree Caldwell-Johnson, former county manager for Polk County, Iowa; and Darnell Earley, city administrator for Flint, Mich.

Mr. Tillery was hired a year ago by the mayor to oversee the city's eight operational agencies. He was recently embroiled in the scandal involving the misuse of the city-issued credit cards.

Mr. Jordan was a consultant to Camille Cates Barnett, the D.C. city administrator before Mr. Koskinen, and was installed as the director of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs by the financial control board in 1997.

Most recently, Mr. Jordan has worked as an assistant to St. Louis Mayor Freeman R. Bosley Jr.

According to a report in the Contra Costa Times, a San Francisco Bay area newspaper, Mr. Bobb was fired last month by Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown after a 5-year stint in which he had sought to reduce crime and urban decay. Mr. Bobb had held positions in Richmond; Kalamazoo, Mich.; and Santa Ana, Calif. He was a candidate to lead Detroit's public schools in 2000.

As Oakland's city manager, Mr. Bobb earned more than $220,000 a year. Mr. Koskinen's job pays $135,000 a year.

Mrs. Caldwell-Johnson was fired by the Polk County Board of Supervisors in January after a long-running dispute with the supervisors, according to a report by KCCI NewsChannel 8 in Des Moines, Iowa. She has filed a lawsuit against the board, stating that racial and gender discrimination played a factor in her dismissal. Mrs. Caldwell-Johnson is black.

"Mrs. Caldwell-Johnson left her position in January. She was well-known and popular as well," Amelia Hamilton-Morris, spokeswoman for the city of Des Moines, said yesterday.

No information about Mr. Earley was available at press time.

Political insiders said Mr. Tillery, Mr. Jordan and Mr. Bobb are among the top candidates.

Members of Mr. Williams' vetting committee declined to comment, saying it is too early in the process.

The members include the District's former city administrator under Mayor Marion S. Barry Jr. -- Michael C. Rogers, now executive vice president for corporate affairs at Medstar Health Inc.

Other members include former D.C. Council member John Ray, an attorney for Manatt, Phelps and Phillips; Martha B. Knisley, director of the D.C. Department of Mental Health; D.C. Transportation Director Dan Tangherlini; Josh Williams, president of the Metropolitan Washington Council AFL-CIO; Barbara Lang, president and CEO of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce; and Calvin Smith, director for human services and public safety for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.