El Paso city council to decide on agency firm for city manager search in today's meeting

El Paso City Council (Credit: KFOX14)

KFOX14
by DIANA GOMEZ
Tue, August 29th 2023, 6:55 AM GMT-7

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — The El Paso City Council plans on discussing which firm will take over the task of finding the right candidates for the city manager position in todays council meeting.

The city told KFOX14/CBS4 the goal is to finalize the decision when it comes to hiring a firm to proceed with looking for candidates for the city manager position.

“We've been in the interim status for too long and given the fact that we have a lot of business and a lot of critical investment into our community. We need to have a permanent city manager already solidified so that we can move on and get to work for the El Paso taxpayer,” said City Representative Cassandra Hernandez.

The City Council fired former City Manager Tommy Gonzalez back in February after nine years on the job, his last day was on June 28th.

Gonzalez was eligible to receive unused vacation and sick leave and his automobile allowance to the date of his termination.

Back in March during a City Council meeting the timeline to have a candidate for the city manager position would be November of this year, however City Representative Cassandra Hernandez said the time frame has since changed.

“Unfortunately, there was a unilateral decision to change the agenda, so members of Council were not able to vote on a search firm, and so now we have wasted too much time, and it's absolutely imperative that we conduct that search firm so that we can get someone to lead our community hopefully by the end of the year going on into early next year, but it will be City's counsel prerogative to create a timeline in, in conjunction with the search firm,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez said funding to hire a firm will come from grants. The budget for the firm will be based on proposals they have received from various firms and she said it’s important for the City Council to hire someone who will understand the culture in our city and challenges.

“We have very unique challenges, and your city council will make the decision to hire the next city manager, but it's absolutely imperative that we follow the best practices, which is conducting a nationwide search, and there is no doubt that we could find talent not only locally, but within Texas. However, it is a best practice to do a nationwide search,” said Hernandez.

To view full list of city meeting agenda click here

To view city council meetings and agendas click here

The City Council meetings are held every two weeks at 9 a.m. on 300 N. Campbell (City Hall) El Paso, Texas 79901.