Tacoma committee narrows competencies for permanent city manager, schedules full card-sort and community survey

Operation Operational Strategy and Administrative Commission members on July 25 took a deeper dive into the recruitment process for a permanent city manager, heard HR staff explain the Korn Ferry competency framework, and agreed on next steps including a 90‑minute card‑sort exercise with the full council and a public survey to gather stakeholder input.

Cheryl Billman, assistant HR director for Talent Solutions, and Keith Gulley, HR manager over recruitment, presented the Korn Ferry Competency Framework and asked the committee to identify the key leadership behaviors the city should prioritize when hiring a permanent manager. Billman described Korn Ferry as a "strategic talent tool" used to define "skills, behaviors, and personal attributes for a given position," and said the framework helps translate selected competencies into structured, behavioral interview questions.

Committee members discussed what the city manager should deliver. Several members emphasized communication — both with the council and with the public — and a consistent, more sophisticated citywide approach to branding and external messaging. Committee Member Bushnell and others said the manager should be able to connect strategic plans (Tacoma 2025/2030, the housing action strategy) to budget decisions without losing sight of the organization's broader goals. Emotional intelligence, steadiness and "thick skin," the ability to nurture and delegate to department directors, and the capacity to get work done through others repeatedly surfaced as distinguishing competencies.

Billman outlined parts of the card‑sort process used in prior, abbreviated work earlier in the year: participants narrow a set of 38 competencies to a shorter list and then identify the 5–7 most important competencies for recruitment and interview design. She also explained that Korn Ferry can indicate which competencies are common and easy to develop and which are rare and harder to find in the labor pool — information that can shape whether the city should prioritize finding a candidate with a given ability or plan to develop it after hire.

The committee agreed on several concrete next steps. Staff will develop a short community survey based on the five discussion topics used at the meeting; the committee asked to review the survey before it is released. The committee also agreed to a 90‑minute committee‑of‑the‑whole card‑sort and discussion, and asked staff to confirm an August 5 meeting date for that exercise. HR staff will return with a city manager position description and the prior position description questionnaire (PDQ) for review.

Members discussed scope and timeline: the committee can conduct an internal mini card sort to narrow competencies and then present a refined set to the full council for confirmation. Billman and Gulley recommended narrowing first to roughly a dozen, then asking the council to select a final 5–7 competencies to guide the recruiter and interview materials. Several members said the committee should aim to complete these steps in time to align with the biennial budget calendar and the planned February–March start window discussed earlier with HR.

The meeting produced no formal hiring decision; rather, the committee set the recruitment process and information‑gathering steps staff should take next. Staff committed to produce materials that would support structured, behavior‑based interviews tied to the competencies the council eventually selects.