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City Manager Search

Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:34 pm
by Steve Adler
Colleagues:

I have received the following from Steve Newton and our search firm. As he sets forth below, the next search activity will be on December 3, 2017, when small groups consisting of council members and members of the Citizens Search Task Force, combined, will visit with each of the six candidates set forth below. Council will then meet on December 7, 2017, to narrow to three finalists, who will meet with us, the public, and staff on December 11th and 12th. Our search consultant and staff will be bringing forward their recommendation on how the 11th and 12th will be organized for our consideration.

Have a great holiday!

Steve


Mayor Adler and City Council Members,

We have now completed our first round of interviews of candidates for the City Manager positon. Based on conversations that we have had with each one of you, as well as with the candidates, we are recommending that the following 6 candidates be invited back for further interviews with the Mayor, City Council and the Search Task Force.

• Spencer Cronk
• Cecil House
• Scott Kubly
• Howard Lazarus
• Denise Roth
• Maura Sullivan

We have scheduled the next interviews to take place on Sunday, December 3, 2017. Those interviews will be by City Council members and members of the Search Task Force, combined, in small groups with each candidate. A meeting of the City Council will take place on Thursday, December 7th to discuss which candidates will be invited back for the final interviews. Those final interviews will take place on December 11th and December 12th and will expand to include members of the community as well as City staff.

Respectfully submitted,

Steve

Stephen Newton
Russell Reynolds Associates
609 Main Street | Suite 3500 |Houston, TX 77002
200 Crescent Court | Suite 1000 | Dallas, TX 75201
W: 346-320-5858 | M: 713-302-0140
steve.newton@russellreynolds.com | Steve's Bio
www.russellreynolds.com


Candidate Biographies

SPENCER CRONK
Spencer Cronk was hired as Minneapolis City Coordinator (City Administrator) in 2014. His job is to direct the management of Minneapolis city government by assisting the Mayor and City Council in defining City policy and establishing priorities, mobilizing department heads and staff to implement the Mayor and Council’s priorities, and working to strengthen the management and administrative systems of the City.

Mr. Cronk previously served as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Administration, a role he was appointed to by Governor Mark Dayton in 2011. As Commissioner, Mr. Cronk led the state’s real property, purchasing, fleet, demographic analysis and risk management divisions responsible for more than $2 billion in State purchasing and the historic renovatiCecon of the Minnesota State Capitol. Additionally, Mr. Cronk also served as chair of the Minnesota Public Data Governance Advisory Committee, and as a member of the Environmental Quality Board and the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council.

Before joining the State of Minnesota, Mr. Cronk served as executive director of organizational development and senior advisor for the Department of Small Business Services for the City of New York, under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. His accomplishments there included the design and implementation of a comprehensive performance-management system and the development of a program for integrating new employees, which was used citywide as a best practice template for the City of New York’s 300,000 employees.

Mr. Cronk has served a number of community organizations and agencies, including as an Advisory Council member for Northern Spark, a member of the Minnesota Advisory Board of the Trust for Public Land, and a member of the Itasca Project Task Force on Socioeconomic Disparities in the Twin Cities. He was a recipient of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” Award in 2013.

Mr. Cronk received his bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is a graduate of Harvard University’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program and was a Public Affairs Fellow with the Coro New York Leadership Center.


CECIL HOUSE
Cecil R. House is an attorney and senior operations executive with experience in both the private and public sectors. He currently leads the public sector construction practice for the New York office of Gilbane Building Company.
Prior to joining Gilbane, House was the General Manager and Chief Operating Officer of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) where he was responsible for the operations of the nation’s largest public housing authority, managing over 179,000 units and 95,000 housing vouchers.

Prior to joining NYCHA, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer for Edison International and Southern California Edison, one of the largest electric utilities in the US. House also served as Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer at Public Service Electric & Gas in New Jersey and Vice President of Business Development at Automatic Data Processing, Inc. In each of these capacities, he was actively involved in enterprise risk management. House practiced law in New York City and New Jersey for 13 years, focusing on corporate finance, structured finance, mergers and acquisition and general corporate law.

House has a Master’s of Business Administration degree from Columbia Business School, a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, and a Bachelor’s of Science in Commerce (with a concentration in Finance) from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. He is admitted to the bar in the states of New York and Virginia.


SCOTT KUBLY
Mayor Ed Murray appointed Scott Kubly as the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) director in July 2014. Prior to joining the department, Scott served as deputy director of the Chicago Department of Transportation and, before that, as associate director for the District Department of Transportation in Washington, DC.

As director of SDOT, Scott oversees transportation policy, capital project delivery, transportation and maintenance operations, transit and mobility improvements, and management of the city's right of way. He led the creation of the award-winning Move Seattle Plan, which outlines Mayor Murray's 10-year vision for transportation in Seattle and delivers a comprehensive strategy for connecting and enhancing the city's many ways to travel. Scott was also a lead architect of the voter-approved Levy to Move Seattle, which provides $930 million to improve safety, maintain streets and bridges, and invest in reliable, affordable travel options for a growing city. Scott additionally serves as the Vice President of the National Association of City Transportation Officials.

Scott attended middle school and high school in Austin and has a Masters in Community and Regional Planning for the University of Texas and an MBA from The Wharton School.


HOWARD LAZARUS
Howard Lazarus serves as the City Administrator for Ann Arbor, MI. Mr. Lazarus previously served the City of Austin, Texas, as Director of Public Works from 2008 to 2016 and was responsible for a 720-person department delivering planning, design and execution of the City capital improvement program with a value of over $2 billion; development and oversight of an annual operating budget of $91 million; maintenance of over 7,800 miles of roadway, inspection and repair of bridges; and planning and implementation of bicycle, pedestrian and child safety programs.

Mr. Lazarus previously served as Acting/Interim Assistant City Manager for the City of Austin, Texas (2010) with supervision over Service group functions including Public Works, Transportation, Code Compliance, Solid Waste Services, and Aviation Departments.

Prior to his employment by the City of Austin, Mr. Lazarus has worked in the private section, for the City of Newark, New Jersey and the U.S. Army.

Mr. Lazarus holds a Bachelor of Science from the US Military Academy, West Point and a Master of Science in Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College and the Senior Executives in State and Local Government, Kennedy School, Harvard University and has received numerous awards recognitions over his 30 years public and private sector career.


DENISE ROTH
Denise Turner Roth is a senior advisor at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, a global engineering and professional services organization. In her new position, Ms. Roth assists public and private sector clients with buildings, infrastructure and energy projects.

Ms. Roth previously served as the administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration and was appointed to serve in this position by President Barack Obama. Throughout her 20 years of public service, Ms. Roth has held various leadership positions at the federal and local government levels. She served as administrator for the General Services Administration (GSA) from March 2015 to January 2017, leading a workforce of 12,000 full-time employees with responsibility for a $27 billion budget that supported the agency’s public buildings service, federal acquisition service and technology services programs.

Prior to joining GSA, Ms. Roth served as city manager for Greensboro, North Carolina. Her leadership helped pave the way for several new and creative management changes in the city, including the reorganization of city departments and divisions to promote efficiency and improve service delivery and launching public/private initiatives creating more than $75 million in city enhancements.

She previously served as vice president for governmental affairs at the Greensboro Partnership where she successfully secured $60 million in state funds to establish the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and UNC Greensboro Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering.

Ms. Roth earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and government from George Mason University, where she also received an honorary doctorate of letters in recognition of her distinguished public service. She was recently appointed as a fellow to the National Academy of Public Administration.


MAURA SULLIVAN
Maura Sullivan serves as the Chief Operating Officer for the City of Chattanooga. Sullivan runs the day-to-day operations of the city. Prior to this, she was the interim Executive Director of the Memphis Housing Authority.
Sullivan previously the City of Memphis as Deputy Chief Administrative Officer. In this role she served as a member of the Mayor’s executive team and works to coordinate operations of all divisions of Memphis city government, with over 6,000 employees and an annual operating budget in excess of $600 million.

Sullivan has worked in government in the Memphis community throughout her career, serving as Deputy Director of Planning and Development for Memphis and Shelby County, as Assistant Superintendent of Planning and Student Services for Shelby County Schools, as a special assistant for the Honorable Harold E. Ford, Jr, Member of Congress and as a family court mediator for the Shelby County Juvenile Court. While at the Division of Planning and Development, Sullivan was part of a team that developed and wrote “Sustainable Shelby” a land use and sustainability plan for Memphis and Shelby County.

Sullivan has undergraduate and graduate degrees in public administration and international relations from the University of Memphis.