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Tacoma schedules Feb. 26 final interviews and televised public forum for city manager candidates
Summary
Human Resources told the OSAC committee that final, in-person interviews for city manager candidates will be held Feb. 26 with four interview panels and an evening televised community presentation at the Tacoma Dome; staff will compile and brief council on community feedback before a late-March confirmation.
Human Resources provided a timeline and logistics for the final stage of Tacoma's city manager recruitment, including in‑person interviews on Feb. 26 and a televised public presentation at the Tacoma Dome where each candidate will give a 15‑minute presentation followed by 10 minutes of questions. Kate Gulley, the HR lead briefing the committee, said the presentations will use questions drawn from a community stakeholder survey and that community feedback cards will be collected and compiled for council review.
The briefing matters because it lays out how community input will be gathered alongside council interviews. Gulley said the city will organize four interview panels on the interview day, host community meet‑and‑greet tables, and provide candidate bios and interview packets on the City Hub website. "This will be a televised event," Gulley said, noting parking and entry logistics and that the evening is intended to let candidates present qualifications and respond to prepared questions.
Council members asked whether interview questions provided to community panels or staff would be shared with other panels, how panelists would be oriented, and how council would receive feedback. Staff said interview packets and logistics would be distributed to panelists by the weekend and that panelists would receive a prebrief covering confidentiality and permissible follow‑ups. Staff described a debrief period immediately after interviews during which facilitators would collect and synthesize strengths and opportunities observed by the panels; that compilation will be presented to the council before any formal negotiation steps.
The timeline shared by staff calls for community presentations and panels in late February, council debriefs and candidate interviews in March, and a confirmation vote for the new city manager in late March with a likely start date between April and May. Staff noted that one candidate who requires travel will arrive the evening before and that the public forum will include staffed candidate tables and feedback cards for attendees.
Staff action items recorded during the session included finalizing and distributing panelist lists, confirming whether the three public presentation questions can be shared with council members in advance, and posting candidate materials on the City Hub website. The OSAC discussion did not include a formal vote on recruitment steps; rather, staff will bring compiled feedback and any recommended next steps to the full council and study sessions as part of the hiring process.
