What's the City Manager Search Timeline Look Like?

The city manager search process

Pick a search firm

• When: As early as next week

Put together a position profile.

The search firm and the city will work together to put together a description about what the city wants in a city manager. In addition to talking with current council and staff, they will talk with former mayors and council members and other residents.

• When: Unspecified, but Maxwell envisions the group meetings to be done in one night.

Recruit candidates

The search firms all said that they’d do a mix of advertising and actively recruiting candidates. Fursman went so far as to say that about 75 percent of candidates wouldn’t apply unless invited to do so. The search could be local, regional or national. But all the firms agreed that the Internet effectively makes any search a national search because candidates can visit a Minnesota jobs board from anywhere in the country.

• When: The candidate search could begin soon after contracting with the firm and proceed simultaneously with the development of the position profile.

Narrow down the candidate pool

The search firm will choose the top 10 or so applications from among the dozens it will likely receive. From these, council will then pick four to six finalists.

• When: Unspecified

Interview the finalists

The finalists will visit Hopkins for what will probably be a two-day interview process. They’ll interview with council members and panels of city staff—as well as take a tour of the city and attend a meet-and-greet to give the council a sense of how they interact with the public.

• When: Springsted and Brimeyer Fursman both envision interviews taking place at the end of June. If necessary, the council could decide to call some or all of the candidates back for a second round of interviews.

Choose a new city manager

• When: Could happen immediately after the interview process or it could happen later.

The new city manager starts

• When: Maxwell initially told the Star Tribune that Hopkins would like the new manager to start by July 1. Fursman said that would be a tough target to hit, although the city shouldn’t have any problem making its choice by that time. Part of the difficulty lies in the contract that Hopkins’ future manager might have at his or her current job. City managers can be required to give as much as six weeks notice before leaving their job—which would push the start date into September.