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Eugene committee selects six firms for city manager recruitment interviews
Summary
A Eugene City Council committee reviewed 15 letters of interest and chose six recruitment firms for initial interviews, setting a tentative full-council interview date and asking staff to schedule 30-minute interview slots and prepare a small set of standardized questions.
A Eugene City Council committee agreed to advance six executive-recruiting firms to the next stage of the city manager search after scoring 15 letters of interest, the committee said at a meeting to review the candidates.
Committee members identified Prothman; WCP (as listed in the materials); Raphtelis (as listed in the materials); Ralph Anderson & Associates; Bob Murray & Associates; and CPS HR Consultants as the top six firms to invite for initial interviews. The committee asked city staff to arrange roughly 30-minute interview slots and to propose dates in the week of July 7 for full-council interviews, with an earlier window for preliminary interviews between June 23 and July 7.
The decision followed committee members’ review of written materials from 15 firms and a shared scoring matrix. Committee members said their primary criteria included recent experience successfully recruiting city managers, the seniority of the staff who would work on Eugene’s search, West Coast or Pacific Northwest recruitment networks, demonstrated ability to recruit diverse candidate pools, the quality of recruitment materials, and ability to meet an approximately 12-week timeline.
Committee members noted a wide range of proposed fees in the materials, from about $18,000 to $50,000 for all-inclusive search services; the committee did not take a final position on price but said price would be one factor in narrowing the final list. Members also said they wanted clarity about which specific staff each firm would assign to Eugene’s search and that firms should explain how they would conduct outreach for a national search that emphasizes West Coast candidates.
The committee discussed logistics and availability: staff will ask the six firms to be available for interviews between June 23 and July 7 and will try to schedule preliminary interviews on weekday evenings to accommodate committee members’ work schedules. The tentative plan is to hold full-council interviews on July 7, though staff will check for flexibility and availability.
On interview content, the committee asked staff to provide a short set of advance prompts or questions so firms could prepare. The committee agreed on a short slate of core questions for the preliminary interviews: who on the firm’s team will be assigned to Eugene and why; describe the firm’s most recent successful city manager search; what, if anything, the firm would do differently for Eugene specifically; and how the firm will manage remote work and in-person engagements when necessary. Committee members said they expect to ask more detailed questions at the full-council stage.
Staff will email committee members a refined question set and proposed slots after coordinating with the firms. Committee members described the next step as narrowing the six to a smaller slate—three or four—to bring to the full council for final interviews and selection.
