Mayor Dana Williams and the Park City Council have tapped a California recruiting firm to assist in the hiring of the next city manager, choosing the same recruiter involved in the process that ended with Tom Bakaly's hiring as the top City Hall staffer nearly a decade ago.

The City Council recently authorized a deal with a Sacramento, Calif., firm called Peckham & McKenney. Nine firms had sought the deal. It will pay Peckham & McKenney $17,500 plus expenses of up to $7,500.

The deal includes a 16-week timeline to make an offer to a candidate. That schedule points to an offer in late December. City Hall hopes someone starts in mid-January.

The report said the firm will guarantee the person stays in the position for two years. Brooke Moss, the human resources manager at City Hall, said the guarantee requires the firm to repeat the recruitment at no cost besides expenses if the person leaves within the two-year window.

An outline of the recruitment process includes advertising and marketing the position, a round of preliminary interviews and a set of final interviews. It says a City Hall official could visit the community where the finalist works.

Bobbi Peckham calls Peckham & McKenney "a smaller 'boutique' firm best able to tailor this recruitment to the City's needs," according to the report to the mayor and City Council. The report says Peckham will oversee the recruitment herself.

The firm's website includes a list of current searches it is conducting as well as recently completed ones. The current searches include a city manager position in Santa Clara, Calif., and the city manager office in Eureka, Calif.

Peckham & McKenney recently was involved in the hiring of officials like the city manager of Cupertino, Calif., the city manager in Corvallis, Ore., and the community development director in Beverly Hills, Calif., according to the website.

The recruitment that led to Bakaly's 2003 hiring as the city manager yielded 122 people. Bakaly held a series of high-level positions in the Park City government before ascending to the city manager's office. He left Park City in August to become the city manager in Hermosa Beach, Calif.

Some, including the mayor, expect the opening to draw more than 100 applications.