A consultant firm was chosen to aid the board of trustees in their search for a replacement for President Tom Fallo during their special March 30 meeting.

The board of trustees announced that Community College Search Services will be the firm to consult with the board and search committee, as the search moves forward.

After the trustees interviewed five search firms — College CEO’s, Community College Search Services (CCSS), Educational Leadership Search (ELS), PPL, Inc. and Ralph Andersen & Associates — they made a choice on who to hire.

The decision to choose CCSS was unanimous.

The interviews were conducted by the board by allowing each firm to give a 10 to 15 minute presentation, which were followed by another 10 to 15 minutes so the board could ask questions.

Halfway throughout the interviews, trustees started to notice that all of these firms were professional, well-practiced candidates. Ken Brown, Vice President of the board of trustees, said that, after ELS’s presentation, he started focusing more on what firms had to offer outside of their professional capacity.

“For me it was about passion,” Brown said. “Who do I want to work with for the next seven months? They’re going to give me the information, and that’s fine. But give me the passion, and give me the honesty.”

Ralph Andersen and CCSS both showed the personality and passion Brown mentioned. Ralph Andersen, represented by Stan Arterberry, and CCSS, represented by John Romo and James Walker, were the only firms that appeared on all of the trustees’ shortlists.

Trustee member Cliff Numark distinguished the two firms, as he gave convincing arguments for both.

He said that Arterberry was very charismatic and proved that his operation had a better opportunity to get “out-of-the-box” candidates, qualities Numark thought were noteworthy on top of other services Arterberry offered like a board retreat and recommendations for the board and search committee.

“I thought he was very high touch,” Numark said.

However, Romo and Walker had more resources and experience that may have put CCSS ahead.

“(CCSS) is larger, has more searches going, more resources, more experience, frankly, in the community college base and is more local,” Numark said.

All of the firms interviewed on Monday had the qualifications the board was looking for, but the decision ultimately came down to who was the strongest combination of personality and expertise.

The next board of trustees meeting will be on April 13.