The City of Lawrence made an offer to the commission’s chosen city manager candidate last week. Legal counsel and consultants are still in contract negotiations, according to the mayor.
“We hope to wrap those negotiations up very soon and schedule a final vote and announcement shortly thereafter,” Mayor Brad Finkeldei said.
Until then, the city won’t release the name of the potential city manager.
Finkeldei originally thought the commission would make a hiring announcement at a special meeting the week of Tuesday, May 26, following Memorial Day. At that time, he had said the meeting could get pushed out if the commission defaulted to their second choice.
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On Wednesday, Finkeldei said his original estimation had been optimistic. The city is still in negotiations with the commission’s top candidate, but it’s not as simple as sitting in a room together to figure things out. He said it’s a “full step process” to go back and forth between consultants and lawyers.
Finkeldei was hesitant to provide a new potential date for the announcement, but said the commission still plans to schedule a special meeting that would start with a short executive session.
“Then we come out and vote and announce the post at that time,” Finkeldei said.
Former City Manager Craig Owens announced in November that he would be leaving his position in May. He held the position for almost seven years after starting in the role on July 1, 2019. Casey Toomay has served as acting city manager in the interim.
The city contracted with Strategic Government Resources for a not-to-exceed price of $28,419 to help guide the city manager search, which began in January.
The four final candidates — Joe Fivas, Joseph (Joe) Lessard, Majed Al-Ghafry and Michael Kovacs — visited Lawrence for two days of interviews and a community meet-and-greet between Wednesday, May 20 and Thursday, May 21. On Friday, May 22, city commissioners made their final selection and directed staff to enter into negotiations with their top candidate.
Read more about the city manager hiring process in the articles at this link.
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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].
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