By Dan Parker

Robert BradshawRobert Bradshaw has reached an employment agreement with city officials, and he is poised to be the next city manager of Port Aransas, according to Interim City Manager Dave Parsons.

The Port Aransas City Council voted today, Monday, April 26, to sign off on an employment agreement reached between Parsons and Bradshaw, who currently is town manager of Indian River Shores, Fla.

Parsons helped lead a search committee that sorted through more than 100 applicants for the city manager’s job over the past several months. The committee recently narrowed the field of candidates down to a top three. Besides Bradshaw, they were Ronald Stock, city administrator of Lamar, Colo.; and Bill Vance, whose most recent city employment was as town manager of Lady Lake, Fla.

The council met in executive session for five minutes today before opening the meeting back up to the public and voting 6-0, with no public discussion, to hire Bradshaw. Councilman Mike Hall was absent.

All three finalists “were capable and qualified,” Mayor Pro Tem Keith McMullin said in an interview after the meeting.

“At the end of the day,” McMullin added, “not only the selection committee, but also the council felt Bradshaw was a better fit.” McMullin was a member of the search committee.

Mayor Claude Brown pointed out that Bradshaw grew up in the Coastal Bend – Corpus Christi, to be precise – and remains familiar with the area. Bradshaw also has gone through more than one hurricane while working as a city administrator in Florida.

“The knowledge he gained from that is invaluable,” Brown said.

Bradshaw will be paid a salary of $109,000 and will receive a car allowance of $6,000 per year, McMullin said.

Former City Manager Michael Kovacs, who resigned from the position in December to take a job as assistant city manager of Park City, Utah, earned a salary of $95,000 and had a car allowance of $8,400.

Bradshaw is getting a bigger salary than Kovacs because council members believe Bradshaw will earn it by producing results for Port Aransas, McMullin said.

“The (positive) financial impact the city manager can have on this city is massive,” McMullin said. “…We feel like his pay will come back in dividends for Port Aransas, whether that means landing grants for the city or in other ways.”

Bradshaw is expected to start in June. No exact date has been worked out yet.