Kemah culls through candidates for city post

KEMAH — Kemah may have a new city administrator as early as next week.

“Hopefully, the (search) committee will put two out there at our meeting Monday night and then, hopefully, the council will let me choose one,” Kemah mayor Bob Cummins said. “If we get that done Monday, we can have it all wrapped up at our meeting Thursday.”

The meeting Monday is a budget workshop, but an agenda item relating to naming a city administrator can be added. That meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Thursday’s council gathering would be the group’s regular meeting.

The search for a new city administrator became necessary when current office holder Bill Kerber announced his plans to retire effective Sept. 30.

Kerber, along with council members Pat Buchanan and Wayne Rast are serving as the search committee.

“Each member of the committee got all the 50-plus applications and then they each had to select five. Then they jointly brought it down to six,” Cummins said.

Then, each of the six came in for interviews with Cummins and the committee.

The mayor said he was impressed with all of the finalists, but “there are two that are absolutely marvelous.”

The final six candidates are:

Rick Beverlin is a resident of Kemah and comes from the private sector. He is the vice president for governmental affairs for The Goodman Corp which is a Houston-based urban and transit planning company. During the years, he has managed a host of regional mobility studies and plans.

Beverlin has a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Houston and a political science degree from the University of St. Thomas.

Carol Buttler is a resident of Live Oak, where she is the manager of economic and community development. Previously, she served as the assistant city manager of Hondo.

Buttler has a bachelor’s degree in public management from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Jack Fryday has been a fixture in the area for many years. Currently, the Seabrook resident is the Kemah building official and also serves as Clear Lake Shores’ building inspector. He also served as mayor of both Seabrook and Shoreacres.

Fryday has a master’s degree in physics from Louisiana Tech.

Victor Pena lives in Bellmead and serves as the city manager there. Prior to that, he was the Huntsville assistant city manager.

Pena possesses a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Angelo State University.

Bobby Pennington lives in Keller and is a management analyst for the city of Fort Worth. He also has served as the finance director for the city of Palestine.

Pennington earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Houston-Clear Lake and a public administration degree from Harding University in Searcy, Ark.

Bill Rankin is a Houston resident. Recently, he served as the Eagle Lake city manager and as the La Porte city manager. From 1982 to 1984, he was the Hitchcock city manager.

Rankin earned two degrees from the University of Houston-Clear Lake — a bachelor’s in government and a master’s in public management.