Gill receives offer, likely to go

Allen Gill has received a tentative offer to take the city manager job in Carbondale, Ill.
The offer was referenced by off-the-record sources and was confirmed on the record by Pittsburg City Commissioner Bill Rushton Wednesday.
“He told me he had an offer,” Rushton said. “And he said that he would be coming out with that information later this week.”
Rushton said that information could lead to the end of Gill’s career in Pittsburg.
“He’s pretty much told us that if they confirm it, he’s going to go,” Rushton said.
According to The Southern Illinoisan, Gill was the only finalist for the position left standing when the other of the two finalists for the position, Jeffrey Stonehill, informed his hometown newspaper The Press and Journal in Middletown, Pa., that he wouldn’t be leaving his post there.
That left Gill, who has been Pittsburg’s City Manager since 2002.
Despite Stonehill’s announcement, Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole told the Southern Illinoisan that the city manager’s post has not been settled.
“We have not finalized anything with any of our candidates at this point so I can’t speak to anything further than that; this is still an open process,” he said. “This is a personnel matter and it involves a lot of different people. I have not spoken with Mr. Stonehill so whatever comments he makes are his own.”
The Southern Illinoisan said the council members were expected to conduct a straw vote at a closed meeting held May 12, from which they were expected to extend an offer to one of the two candidates. No official offer has been tendered because Gill has not been approved, in-session, by Carbondale City Council members.
Current Carbondale City Manager Jeff Doherty will step down from his post, which he has held for 16 years, late next month.
Gill declined to comment Wednesday afternoon. When first approached by The Morning Sun about his spot among the finalists, Gill called the position “an opportunity for professional development.” Gill has held two previous jobs in Illinois, and the town wouldn’t be far from his sons, who live 90 miles away in St. Louis.
Carbondale is the site of Southern Illinois University, the second-largest university in the state to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“We wish him the best of luck in the process,” said Pittsburg Mayor Pam Henderson. “I think this would be a promotion for him in the city manager profession. Carbondale is a larger city than Pittsburg, and it would be a step forward for him.
“But as of right now, he is still an employee with the city of Pittsburg, and as one of our personnel, that’s all the comment I would like to make at this time. We do know he’s the final candidate in that pool. So I guess we’ll wait and see what happens now.”

Kevin Flaherty can be reached at kevin.flaherty@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 Ext. 134