Homewood City speaker urges national search, outside firm for next city manager

An unidentified speaker told the council that the search for Homewood City’s next city manager should be a national recruitment led by a search committee and an outside search firm, and that the city should seek a candidate with formal qualifications and prior experience.

The speaker said officials should look for "the qualifications, the education, the training, the certifications that of a city manager," and added that they "want someone that that knows what they're doing." The speaker emphasized experience as a priority, saying the ideal candidate "has served as a city manager before," and warned against selecting someone who would be "learning on the job." "This is not we don't want someone that's gonna be learning on the job," the speaker said.

The speaker outlined process details the council should follow: a national search managed by a search committee and an outside firm that would be hired to handle recruitment and report back to the council and possibly a group of citizens involved in choosing a finalist. The proposal called specifically for hiring a search firm to manage outreach and vetting rather than relying solely on internal promotion.

No formal motion, vote, timeline, or personnel names were recorded in the transcript. The speaker framed the recommendation as guidance for "this council or any future council," indicating a preference for an open, competitive process and independent assistance in recruitment.

Because the remarks were a statement of preference rather than a formal action, the next procedural steps and any timeline for engaging a search firm or committee were not specified.