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Tacoma committee launches recruitment framework for permanent city manager; $70,000–$75,000 budget recommended
Summary
OSAC approved staff to begin a search process for a permanent city manager on July 11, agreeing on a February–March target start window and recommending a recruitment budget of $70,000–$75,000, including an estimated $50,000 for an executive recruiting firm.
The Tacoma City Council's Operations Strategy and Administrative Committee (OSAC) agreed July 11 to begin the process to recruit a permanent city manager and provided staff direction on a timeline, budget and community engagement approach.
Cheryl Biederman of the Human Resources Department described a four-phase recruitment framework staff recommended to the committee: a 60–90 day preparation phase (including selecting an executive recruiting firm), a candidate pipeline-building phase, a multi-stage screening and interview process, and final selection and start-of-employment steps such as negotiation, background checks and public announcement.
Biederman said the committee should expect the preparation phase to take "about 90 days" and said staff recommended a target appointment date for the new city manager in the February–March 2026 timeframe to allow a buffer for re-starts and notice periods. She summarized the recruitment objective as "to develop and steward a fair, transparent, and inclusive process, resulting in the selection of Tacoma's next permanent city manager, aligning the process with council values, community priorities, and organizational needs." (Cheryl Biederman, Human Resources Department.)
On budgeting, staff recommended a recruitment budget of $70,000 to $75,000. That estimate includes candidate travel and hospitality expenses and an estimated $50,000 fee for an executive recruiting firm. "We're recommending 70 to $75,000," Biederman said; she clarified that the estimate is based on prior searches and that actual costs will depend on factors such as the number of out-of-area candidates and whether multiple in-person panels are required.
The committee discussed outreach and community engagement plans. Staff proposed using a combination of tools including an existing biennial community survey, an additional short public survey, community events where finalists meet the public, and multiple interview panels (staff, community organizations, and general public panels). Members suggested combining the statistically representative community survey results with an open online survey to broaden input while noting the limitations and different sampling frames of each method.
OSAC members agreed staff should begin identifying executive recruiting firms, develop a detailed recruitment plan that includes interview panels and community engagement, and return with those details at a follow-up meeting. Human Resources will also review recent outward-facing executive recruitments (for example, the police chief recruitment) and bring that recruitment plan as an example to OSAC.
Ending: Staff will begin firm outreach and prepare a detailed recruitment plan for OSAC review; the committee set a target appointment window of February–March and identified a recommended budget of $70,000–$75,000 to fund the search process.
