Lakewood council advances five candidates by number in city manager recruitment

Lakewood, Washington — The Lakewood City Council convened in executive session Monday night to review applications for the city manager position and selected a short list of applicants to advance in the recruitment process.

To preserve applicant confidentiality during the ongoing recruitment, councilmembers referred to candidates by the numbered identifiers provided in the consultant packet. After discussion, the council directed the consultant to invite candidates numbered 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 to the next round of interviews. Candidate number 5 was designated as a reserve should one of the primary five withdraw or become unavailable.

The council discussed desired qualifications such as prior city manager experience, municipal budget and finance expertise, economic development background and familiarity with military communities, and sought to balance those priorities across the short list.

Councilmembers also reviewed the process for local stakeholder panels, asked staff to revise the panel list to avoid current candidates for city office and to broaden representation (for example, business leaders, neighborhood representatives and transit partners). The consultant will contact the five shortlisted candidates to confirm continued interest and to schedule city‑level interviews and stakeholder panels.

No formal award or appointment was made in the meeting; the action was limited to advancing candidates for further evaluation.