By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members on Thursday named three finalists for the position of city manager.
The council made the selection during a special meeting held at 5 p.m. Thursday.
The city council will meet again in special session beginning at 9:30 a.m. Saturday to re-interview the three finalists.
The special meeting convened after five of the seven council members participated in a press conference led by U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales and Mayor Al Arreola at the Del Rio International Airport to discuss efforts to restore commercial air service.
Arreola called the special meeting to order and immediately moved into an executive session.
Arreola and the council returned to open session about 20 minutes later and announced no action had been taken by the council while behind closed doors.
“At this time we are going to go ahead request our HR Director (Mario Garcia) to bring the three candidates to a final interview on Saturday (Aug. 24),” Arreola announced.
He then asked Garcia to read aloud the names of the three finalists.
“The three candidates who will be interviewed Saturday will be Ms. Shawna Dowell Burkhart, Mr. Blaine Oborn and Mr. Randy Robertson,” Garcia said.
Arreola then called for a motion.
Councilman J.P. Sanchez made the motion move forward with the three finalists: Burkhart, Oborn and Robertson. Councilman Jesus Lopez Jr. gave the second.
Burkhart and Robertson were among three candidates interviewed during a council meeting on July 23, and Oborn was interviewed by the council via Zoom during a meeting on Aug. 6.
The 830 Times has requested and received copies of the finalists’ resumes from the city. The resumes of Burkhart, Robertson and the third candidate interviewed in July were published here earlier.
The 830 Times requested Oborn’s resume the day before his Aug. 6 interview and received the resume on Aug.14.
Oborn most recently served as city administrator for the city of Oak Harbor, Washington, a city with a population of 24,940. He served in that position from August 2018 until February 2024.
Oborn also served as city administrator for the city of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, with a permanent population of 8,500, and a daytime tourist population of up to 40,000, from May 205 until August 2018 ; city administrator for the city of Rhinelander, Wisconsin, with a permanent population of 8,300 and a daytime population of 13,000, from August 2011 until May 2015; and as village administrator for the village of Kronenwetter, Wisconsin, with a population of 7,210, from July 2009 until August 2011.
Oborn has also worked as city administrator for the city Ronceverte, West Virginia, with a population of 1,572, from June 2005 until July 2009; and as adjunct faculty at Greenbrier Valley Campus of the New River Community and Technical College in Lewisburg, West Virginia, where he taught business communications from August 2005 until June 2009.
Oborn’s resume notes he worked in “interim fiscal positions” from December 2003 to June 2005, as finance director for the city of Angels Camp, California, from April 2002 until November 2003; as accounting grants manager and fiscal analyst for the state of California in Sacramento, California, from July 1989 until April 2002; and as an accountant/student intern for the United States Air Force at McClellan Air Force Base in California from June 1986 until July 1989.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
