Is Lemon Grove Losing Its City Manager?

City Manager Graham Mitchell met last week with the city officials of a Pacific Northwest town after he was chosen as a candidate for its city manager position.

Mitchell was one of five semi-finalists to meet on Aug. 4 with the city council and senior staff members in Corvallis, OR, for a round of interviews, and to attend a public reception to meet residents.

Corvallis city officials announced Tuesday they had narrowed their search to two candidates after last week's meet and greet—and Mitchell did not make the cut.

Mitchell, Lemon Grove’s city manager for eight years, says he applied for the job after seeing it advertised. He is not seeking any other positions at this time.

“My wife and I wanted to see what Oregon was like,” Mitchell says. “It gave us a chance to see what it’s all about. It was fun.”

A one-minute video snippet features Mitchell addressing those who attended the public reception and showing his appreciation for their warmth and hospitality.

“I feel really at home here,” he says.

Mitchell also talks quite sweetly about his family—wife, Angie, to whom he’s been married for 14 years, and their children; a son, Atticus, 4, who he describes as a smart aleck like himself, and daughter, Emerson, 9, who speaks fluent Spanish and is compassionate, a trait he says she gets from her mother.

“I’m grateful to be here,” he says. “I am grateful for the quality of life Corvallis offers. It's one of the main reasons my wife and I are interested in pursuing this career opportunity.”

He said the experience renewed him.

“It actually energized me for Lemon Grove,” he says. “It made me really realize how good Lemon Grove really is ... I got some good ideas about how Corvallis does some things in terms of community involvement, engaging citizens and economic development.”

Mitchell says he sees that every city has challenges that are the same.

“It’s all economic right now,” he says.

He says with no sales tax in Oregon, the local governments are interested in businesses that bring innovation, corporate headquarters, and technology. Mitchell says the challenge here is to “figure out how to grow the pie, not the piece of pie.”

And for now, at least, it’s looks like that pie is a lemon meringue.