The Billings City Council voted 9-0 Friday morning to offer the position of city administrator to Greg Doyon, who is currently the city manager for Great Falls.

The Billings council said they liked Doyon’s confidence and that it was clear he was prepared through his thoughtful and precise responses to their questions.

If Doyon accepts the job, the city will start the process to hire a new city manager.

Doyon said Monday that the negotiation process would likely take a week before any final decisions are made and he has to give the city 30 days notice.

Doyon was hired in 2008 from a pool of four candidates for the city manager position.

“I’m at a point in my career where moving to the biggest city in Montana is a priority to me and my family,” Doyon told the Billings council during his interview on Thursday.

He said there was a lot going on in Billings and “quite simply I’d like to be a part of it.”

The Billings assistant city adminsitrator said staff supported Doyon as the best pick for the job.

Mike Yakawich, a Billings council member, made a spreadsheet and determined that Doyon rose to the top because he had the largest city, largest staff and had dealt with the largest financial crisis of the candidates.

“He had a vision I liked about having a tight budget,” Yakawich said.

The Billings city budget is about double Great Falls’ and Doyon discussed his methodology in preparing and presenting budgets during his interview.

Doyon said it’s hard to talk about municipal budgets to the public without their eyes glazing over, so he developed presentations that look at the health of city funds, the importance of the undesignated fund balance and more.

The process, he said, “helps folks connect the dots…that’s important to me to have people understand that.”

Doyon said there can be differences of opinion on funding priorities, but there shouldn’t be disagreement on what the numbers are.

Doyon is originally from Windham, Maine and is a graduate of the University of Southern Maine with a B.A. in Communications.  In 1995, he earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho.

In Great Falls, Doyon oversees the daily operations of the city and enforces the policies adopted by the mayor and commissioners. His duties include supervising all city departments, preparing an annual budget and appointing employees.

Doyon currently serves on the Executive Board of the Montana Defense Alliance and serves on the Board of Directors for the Montana Municipal Interlocal Authority.

He is an International City/County Managers Association credentialed public manager and certified public manager through the National Certified Public Manager Consortium. In 2011, he attended the ICMA Senior Executive Institute at the University of Virginia’s Colgate Darden School of Business. In 2014, Doyon was a named an ICMA Fellow and awarded a scholarship to participate in the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program.

During his career, Doyon has served as a reserve police officer, emergency medical technician, recreation director, planning director, and town administrator. He has also served in the private sector as a director of planning, for a national skilled nursing and assisted-living company.