ADRIAN — The Adrian City Commission is back in the market for a new city administrator after police chief and interim administrator Vince Emrick opted against accepting the job.

“I’ve come to the very difficult decision that this is not the right time for me to do that,” Emrick, who has been serving as interim administrator since the beginning of February, told commissioners during their April 21 meeting. 

“I’m happy to continue as the interim administrator for as long as the commission will have me,” he said, adding that he appreciates the support he has received from both the commission and city residents.

The position was offered to Emrick at the April 7 commission meeting when two commissioners made a motion to stop the search process and hire him, a proposal that took even some of their fellow commissioners by surprise. Although no objections were raised to Emrick himself, and his actions as interim administrator were generally praised, some commissioners objected to circumventing the process they had previously laid out, and the vote to offer him the position was 4-2.

So on April 21, the commission was right back where it had been two weeks earlier, deciding on a search firm to help with the hiring process. Commissioners voted unanimously to hire Yeo & Yeo, an Ann Arbor-based company that was one of two search firms they heard presentations from at a special meeting in March.