Watson offers city manager update

Mayor Kirk Watson has said that he’s confident a new city manager can be identified next month, despite an extended application period. There are 39 applicants for the position, with City Council set to review the candidates on Tuesday, March 5, with interviews and a town hall slated to take place in April. As a part of the recruitment process, the city’s chosen search firm, Mosaic Public Partners, also conducted a community stakeholder survey. That survey found that board and commission members identified housing affordability and homelessness as top areas of priority for the new manager, with 16.7 percent of respondents also asking that the new manager have no affiliation with current leadership. The community at large identified top issues to be homelessness; crime, public safety and civic disorder; transportation and traffic; and housing affordability. City employee responses were more split, saying the most significant challenges the new hire will face are homelessness, housing affordability, managing growth, employee morale and rebuilding trust, and City Council and politics. More complete results of the survey can be read here.