On Monday, Council met in closed session and appointed Akbar Alikhan to the role of Interim City Manager. Mr. Alikhan was Assistant City Manager for a few years, and he’s been the Acting City Manager since Alex McIntyre’s departure.
Mayor Schroeder and Deputy Mayor Sanchez-Palacios will be negotiating the terms of his contract as Interim.
We’ll have an open recruitment process for City Manager. We’ll hire a recruiting firm, and it the applications will be open to anybody with the professional qualifications.
Council may choose to solicit public input on what qualities and experience would best serve the community. I’d support that, though I’d be surprised if there were enough votes. Even if we did, the public can not be part of any interviews or reviewing candidates. Those kinds of personnel matters are strictly confidential. For one thing, it’s not uncommon for a candidate to want their application be kept secret from their current employer.
It will take some time to hire a firm, then they’ll talk to Council about the recruitment strategy, and it’s not a quick process. I expect we’ll have the City Manager position filled within six months, nine months at the latest.