STEUBENVILLE — City Council took the first steps Tuesday toward beginning its search for Steubenville’s next city manager, choosing three of its members to serve on a committee that will brainstorm the hiring process.

The process wasn’t without controversy, however: Fourth Ward Councilman Royal Mayo — already complaining because Fire Chief Carlo Capaldi was invited to gather information on the potential costs involved with building a new fire station when he’d made it clear as Safety and Health Committee chair he wasn’t interested in doing it himself — lashed out again during a discussion on how to fill two community at large seats on the city manager executive search advisory committee.

That committee will not choose the next city manager. Law Director Costa Mastros, in fact, said the committee’s only role is to “help (brainstorm) the process of hiring a city manager.”

“Ultimately, the seven members (of council) will vote on who the new city manager will be,” Mastros said after the meeting.

Mayo was one of four council members to volunteer his services for that committee, but the only vote he got was his own. Chosen to be on the committee were Councilman at large Joel Walker, First Ward Councilman Dave Albaugh and Fifth Ward Councilman Ted Gorman.

Third Ward Councilwoman Heather Hoover then suggested they each bring the name or names of individuals to consider for the two public seats, “and then we go from there.” But when it was suggested that residency in Steubenville would not be a requirement Mayo bristled, pointing out, “We’ve got 18,000 people in this city, they should live in this city. If they’re going to make a decision on … who’s going to lead the city, they should be from this city, and there needs to be some diversity … There’s needs to be a woman and there needs to be a person of color. Those are things that we need to factor in … (We) need to make this fair for everybody to have a voice and a seat at that table.”

Walker reminded him council, not the committee, will decide who will take the reigns when City Manager Jim Mavromatis retires next year.

“This committee is not picking the city manager,” Walker said. “This group of seven (council members) will pick the city manager. This … committee is going to go out and figure out what type of applications we’re going to look for, kind of like that. All the people who submit an application will have to come in front of this whole committee (council) before a decision is made.”

“I agree with you, Mr. Walker, except that who’s going to say what we’re looking for in that person in order to get a real diverse perspective,” Mayo replied. “So we need a person of color to say, ‘Yeah, that fits what we need as well,” and we need a woman to say, ‘Yeah, that fits what we need.”

He jumped in again when Sixth Ward Councilman Mike Hernon prefaced his comments by saying, “I appreciate your opinion but…,” accusing him of “commenting on me” instead of his own opinion.

“We each can decide who we put forward and who would best represent this,” Hernon said, shrugging the criticism off. “It’s worth taking our time to think about that, so we bring two candidates forward and each of us brings our own voice, and then we get to vote, just like we did tonight. To me, that’s a simply easy way — everyone can have their perspective of what’s vital, but then we as a body get to choose who are the two that are going to best represent our interests.

Capaldi, meanwhile, earlier told council he’d met with an architect experienced in designing public buildings to get a feel for what it would cost to replace one of the city’s aged fire stations with one that could accommodate female firefighters and EMS, neither of which it has now. He said there’s no charge for the assessment.

“We went over what (we’d need) in the new building,” he said. “So they basically took all of the information, then they draw it into the computer.”

Mayo, though, questioned how a cost estimate could be put together without having a site in mind.

“We won’t have (a firm figure) until we actually figure out where we’re going to build something out,” Capaldi said. “So yeah, you won’t have that part of the cost, but you’ll have a bigger part of the cost than you have now.”

Mayo persisted, telling Capaldi “the question was, unless you didn’t hear it, would it make more sense, wouldn’t it be prudent for us to know where it was going to be to get a more accurate estimate of the cost?”

“It would be prudent if you’re actually going to build it and spend the money,” Capaldi replied. “But what are we doing? It’s basically a wish list now. I mean, you can’d do anything if you don’t talk about it, so that’s what we’re doing — talking about it. Actually, I’ve been talking about (the need for a new fire station) for 20 years.”

Minutes later, Mayo complained that council allowed Capaldi to make his case for a new building without taking it through his committee.

“I’m the chairman of (Safety and Health) and this wasn’t brought to me,” he said. “And now we move forward, we’re saying that, ‘well, it’s just a wish list.’ We spent an awful lot of time on it for it to just be a wish list — we’re looking for estimates and costs when we have no idea where it’s going to be. It’s a waste of time and proper protocols should be followed to go through the committees it’s supposed to go through.”

Second Ward Councilman Tracy McManamon said giving Capaldi the opportunity to at least find out how much it might cost falls within his purview as chair of council’s finance committee. When the issue first came up several weeks ago he’d said Mayo hadn’t shown interest in discussing it on council floor.

“We are simply at this stage compiling data and facts for discussion and input,” McManamon said. “Our stations are all old and in great need of repair. We keep putting (money) into them every year, and we do not have any facilities for female firefighters or EMS staff.”

He said any information Capaldi brings them will be basic.

“In the end nothing may be done but at least we can say we examined the true facts and figures,” McManamon added.