Kenmore council invites five finalists to interview for city manager role

Kenmore City Council came out of an executive session and directed staff to invite five anonymized applicants — candidates 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 — to interview as finalists for the Kenmore city manager position.

The move matters because the council formally narrowed the pool of applicants and set the outline for a finalist process that will include public and employee meet-and-greets, stakeholder and department director panels, and council interviews. Those steps are intended to give council members and the community more information before the council makes a hiring decision.

After the executive-session announcement, Mayor Herbig opened the floor for nominations and Council member Culver moved to add candidate No. 2 as a finalist. Council members subsequently nominated candidates 1, 3, 4 and 6. The council then approved a motion directing staff to invite candidates 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 to the finalist interview process; the motion was seconded and carried on an aye vote called by the presiding official.

Debbie, the consultant from the council's executive search firm, outlined typical finalist processes used by other cities and recommended options the council could adopt, including a public reception, meet-and-greets for city employees, facilitated panels of department directors and stakeholders, and council-only interview sessions. “I'd like to invite candidate x to be part of our finalist interview process,” Debbie said as an example of how nominations could be framed.

Debbie described common timing and formats: a public reception or open house often lasting about an hour and a half to two hours at a public venue such as city hall, department-director and stakeholder interviews often scheduled for about 50 minutes (roughly 45 minutes of interview time), and council interviews often scheduled for about 75 minutes. She said panels typically provide thematic notes on candidate strengths and areas of concern that she would summarize for the council.

Council members discussed whether to release finalists' names immediately or wait until candidates confirm availability; the council agreed to have staff and the consultant provide candidate bios and ask candidates to notify the city by the end of the week. Council members also discussed scheduling constraints around the holiday week called out in the search timeline and whether to concentrate community events in the evenings or include a Saturday to accommodate candidate and public availability.

Debbie said the search firm would produce comment-card templates for public receptions and summarize themes from those cards for the council. She also said background checks and reference checks were being conducted as part of the process and that the firm would include reference-check summaries in the council packets for finalists so council members could review them before interviews.

Council direction and next steps recorded in the meeting included: inviting candidates 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 to be finalists; providing bios to the city and the council by the end of the week; asking candidates to confirm participation by the end of the week; preparing comment-card templates and feedback summaries; and coordinating scheduling and any expense-reimbursement questions with staff. The council did not take further hiring action at the meeting.

The council's consultant and staff will work out specific schedules, panel membership and public-notice timing and return with logistics and a proposed calendar for finalist events and council interviews.