City Manager Search and Public Forum

It looks like the field is narrowing on the search for Tacoma’s new City Manager before the interviews even begin.  One of five candidates selected last week to move on to the final round of interviews has withdrawn his name from consideration.  According to The News Tribune, Frederick Russell, city administrator from Augusta, Georgia, has decided to remove himself from consideration based on a re-evaluation of the challenges of taking on such a move, geographically.  With Russell out of the running, this leaves four candidates for extensive interviews, etc next week, and one of them, Craig Malin, city manager from Davenport, Iowa, has said he doesn’t know for sure yet if he will be participating. 

The final round for the remaining candidates will ask them to be in town from December seventh through the tenth, and will include a series of panel interviews with community stakeholders, interviews with the City Council, and a moderated public forum and reception where the public can meet the candidates.  The public forum will take place on December eighth from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., in room 315 of the Convention Center.  The reception will immediately follow the forum from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. in the Convention Center loby.  If you don’t want to show up in person, you can watch the forum on TV Tacoma.  Following the final interview process, City Council is scheduled to discuss the finalists on December 12th, and we could see a selection at the December 13th meeting.

The job of the City Manager is not an easy one, and requires that the work be done conscientiously, responsibly, and with great attention to detail and open process.  The information provided by the City Manager has a very direct bearing on the ability of the City Council and others to do their jobs effectively and on the City’s ability to successfully navigate challenges.  The City Council, in their last round of candidate discussions, identified a range of qualifications they would like to see in the new manager, including depth of experience in budgeting, dealing with organizational change, working with diverse communities, and a familiarity with our region.  What qualifications, experience or characteristics are on the top of your priority list for our new City Manager?

Read the City Manager job description

More details on the interview process, and brief candidate profiles on the City of Tacoma website.

Coverage of changes in the candidate field from The News Tribune.