Lacey City Council paused city manager search after candidates dropped out. What’s next?
Lacey City Council was set to interview six city manager candidates last month when the process unraveled on them, prompting council members to pause the process and seek more information from a consultant.
The council is now set to hear that report in executive session the week of May 10.
During Thursday’s council meeting, Mayor Andy Ryder described the report as an “in depth assessment of where we’re at with our current leadership.”
The council was set to interview its six finalists in person in early April when two withdrew their names from consideration and another found a new job elsewhere, leaving the council with three candidates. One of the remaining three finalists was dealing with a family emergency and couldn’t visit Lacey in person.
Based on that information, the council held an emergency meeting on April 3 and decided to cancel the scheduled interviews.
At that same meeting, council member Ed Kunkel suggested the city hire interim City Manager Rick Walk as the city manager, subject to a six-month and 12-month review process.
“This (emergency) meeting was not set up to hire our next city manager but to talk about the interview schedule,” Ryder replied.
The council’s regularly scheduled meeting April 6 included an executive session. The mayor emerged from it and announced the council was going to take a “deeper dive” on the process.
He clarified this past Thursday that the assessment might tell the city to start the search over again, or that the city has a great acting city manager.
Ryder has been part of the city manager search committee that includes council members Lenny Greenstein and Robin Vazquez.
Greenstein said Thursday there’s no need to rush the process because the city is in a strong position with a great leader in interim manager Walk.
“It’s far more important to get the right person than the quick person,” he said.
The city is trying to replace longtime city manager Scott Spence, who left to take the city manager’s job in Astoria, Oregon.
This story was originally published May 5, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
