City Manager Search Update

[Colleen Pate]

Council Members:

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season.

I’m looking forward to the upcoming new year. And as we prepare to start that new year, I want to give a general update on our national City Manager search that’s being led by Mosaic Public Partners.

Council Members Pool, Fuentes, Vela, Mayor Pro Tem Ellis and I (the Committee that recommended Mosaic to the entire Council) met virtually with the two principals at Mosaic (Greg Nelson and Bryan Noblett) just before the Christmas break to get an update and give input.

Mosaic has completed the preliminary steps in the process and, after the first of the year, there will be a lot of activity. They say we’re fortunate because the best timing for recruitment is at the beginning of a year when people aren’t distracted by the holidays and aren’t trying to wrap up the old year. A new year encourages consideration of the future and new opportunities.

As you know, Greg and Bryan have visited with Council Members to get your list of stakeholders that you would like included in the process. They soon will be scheduling another meeting with each of you to discuss other aspects of the search, including your views on the qualities for our next manager.

They appreciate the significant, thorough list of stakeholders (people and groups) that the Council has provided. They intend to begin the process of reaching out to those on the list in various ways, including through written surveys and one-on-one meetings (virtually and in-person). They will also begin the process of scheduling potential group meetings.

Mosaic will “officially” open the application process on January 8th. The application process will close on February 12th. Of course, people know about the open position and Mosaic has been working its network of people. They say there is strong interest in the job and that they expect there will be a good number of applicants. Based on their experience, they anticipate some good candidates will wait until the process is almost closed before applying.

Mosaic will review candidates with Council in early March and we will arrive at a group of finalists. After those people are determined, there will be a robust selection process that includes Council interviews and opportunities for others, including members of the community, to meet the finalists.

The goal is for us to decide on a new City Manager in early to mid-April. However, I want to emphasize that because this is such a big decision, we shouldn't feel rushed in any way. Additionally, we may pick someone that, for personal or professional reasons, can't start until later. Under some circumstances, we may decide that an actual start date for our selection should be later in the year so that, for example, we've completed the budget process. That's a discussion and decision for later (and it has some variables) but I just want us to keep it in mind. We sort of have two parallel possible timelines: 1) pick someone and they can start very soon after chosen; 2) pick someone but they have a later start date.

Finally, we likely won’t have an executive session to generally discuss the search until we have specific people to discuss. The Open Meetings Act allows for a closed executive session for certain types of personnel matters. That does not include an executive session to generally discuss things like process and what we might want to see in a new manager. We can discuss those things on the Message Board and I will continue to report to the entire Council here on the Message Board as things develop.

Thanks. Let me know if you need anything.

Here's to a great 2024!

Kirk
On behalf of Mayor Watson