By Cindy Conroy
El Paso has been without a city manager since February 2023, after the City Council voted to remove without cause then-City Manager Tommy Gonzalez, at the cost of $1 million. In the last 18 months, the city has operated with an interim city manager.
A few weeks ago, I was honored to be asked to participate in the city manager interview panel to help “in the deliberative process in making the decision of who City Council will appoint as the next City Manager.”
Within 24 hours of my agreeing, four finalists for the position were publicly announced. Those of us who were asked to serve were confused as to what we had been asked to do.
The headhunting firm hired by the City Council, at a cost of $42,000, sent a list of candidates with no experience running a large city government. It appears the city manager’s job has become so politicized that outside qualified candidates will not apply.
If, as media reports state, the contracted search firm received 80 applications and forwarded 14 semifinalists, then why did some members of the council, along with the mayor and other officials, select four finalists prior to convening a committee to help in the deliberative process?
Not to cast doubt on the four selected candidates, but the committee nor the community will ever know the level or qualifications of those applicants not put forward.
The actions of the mayor and the select few council members are a disservice to the community. The mayor steps down at the end of the year, two council members are vying to replace him, and if neither are victorious, they will leave a new council with the consequences of a decision made by a group with limited skin in the game.
For the last 18 months, the council and mayor could have sped up the process and selected one of their current finalists as each is currently on the city payroll. Instead, they chose to operate with an interim city manager, and now with less than 90 days before the election, have decided to limit the city manager candidate pool and speed up the hiring process.
The city could easily continue with the interim city manager until a new mayor and council are seated and a city manager in line with the vision of the council is appointed.
Currently, we are in the hands of lame duck officials making decisions with potentially long term and costly consequences.
Cindy Conroy is director of community outreach and a community volunteer, including service as a member of the El Paso Matters board of directors.
The post Opinion: I’ve been asked to help in the city manager search. The process makes no sense appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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