Kalispell City Council Considers Allowing Future City Manager to Live Outside City Limits
Councilors agreed to make living in city limits “preferred” and approved recommended pay ranges for the recruitment process
By Zoë Buhrmaster
Kalispell City Council is debating whether to require the next city manager to live within city limits, an existing condition for the position. GMP Consultants, the Washington-based firm overseeing the job’s recruitment process, asked the council for clarity on the recommended salary and starting pay ranges, alongside the living requirement.
The city began the four- to six-month long search for a new city manager in August after City Manager Doug Russell announced that he was departing for a position in Lakewood, Wash.
During Tuesday night’s work session, councilors compared the city manager residency requirement with a decision council made to allow fire and police department staff to live outside the city limits, as long as they lived in Flathead County.
“Unfortunately, this is the one position in the city I’m not willing to let live outside of the city because the management that he does is directly affecting the citizens here and it should directly affect him or her as well,” Councilor Sid Daoud said.
Councilor Ryan Hunter suggested adding an initial grace period of 12 to 18 months to find housing within the city limits.
“My understanding is that the motivation for (police and fire) is that we have folks on their salary having a hard time affording stuff in town, and that is hopefully getting better,” Hunter said. “But a city manager has a considerably greater income, so I think that’s less of an issue here.”
Other councilors said they were concerned with limiting the pool of applicants and suggested requiring them to live within a 20-minute drive of the city.
“I do wholeheartedly agree that making them required to live within the city would decrease the size of the pool to attract them to come here,” Councilor Sam Nunnally said. “But they should have a little bit of freedom. That’s where I’ve come down to on this.”
The residency requirement likely originated from when the city changed its leadership format from a mayor-council system to a council-manager system, Mayor Mark Johnson said, placing the management of operations under the city manager’s responsibility. He suggested making it negotiable to avoid eliminating qualified candidates if they have livestock and don’t want to live in the city, for example.
The council agreed to allow GMP Consultants to advertise the job with living in city limits as “preferred.” The decision necessitates changing city manager code that currently requires city managers to live in Kalispell municipal boundaries.
The council also approved the firm’s recommended salary range, $195,000 to $219,007, with a starting salary between $195,000 and $207,003. During the 2025 fiscal year, the city paid Russell a base salary of $204,490, in addition to health insurance and retirement pay.