The City of Lawrence paid an executive search firm and brought four city manager candidates to town this spring. Here’s what it all cost.
Following the search by Strategic Government Resources, four finalists — Majed Al-Ghafry, Joe Fivas, Michael Kovacs and Joseph (Joe) Lessard — visited Lawrence in late May.
Lawrence city commissioners on June 9 announced Al-Ghafry as the next city manager. He started working at City Hall in late July, and joined his first city commission meeting Tuesday, Aug. 4.
(Learn more about Al-Ghafry and his goals for the city in this article, and read about the “system of order” Al-Ghafry wants to create following the city audit at this link.)
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
Candidate reimbursements
Please support
The Lawrence Times!
Subscribe here.
The total cost for all four candidates to stay at downtown’s Eldridge Hotel was $1,448.
Here’s the breakdown of how the candidates spent money on travel and food, and how the city reimbursed them.
Majed Al-Ghafry
Al-Ghafry had the smallest reimbursement request of the candidates.
He submitted a request totaling $865 on May 27, and Courtney Shanks, senior financial specialist in the city manager’s office, reimbursed him for $896.
The discrepancy comes from food costs, as Al-Ghafry underspent his daily allotment.
Each candidate had a per diem food budget based on the U.S. General Services Administration Meals & Incidentals Expenses rate, which is standard for hiring processes at public institutions.
The total across all days varied for each person depending on their travel schedules. Al-Ghafry wrote that he spent $52 on food, but his per diem total was $83 after Shanks subtracted one lunch provided by the city.
Joe Fivas
On June 14, Fivas requested $1,473 for reimbursement, but the charges he listed actually added up to $1,423, as Shanks clarified via email.
His travel costs — including flights, a car rental and gas — totaled $1,364. The rest of the money went to food at Taco Bell, Panda Express and The Burger Stand.
Shanks ultimately reimbursed Fivas for $1,515. Again, the added amount is because of the GSA per diem rates.
Michael Kovacs
Kovacs had a wrench thrown into his travel plans: Because of weather, he had to cancel flights and incurred some nonreimbursable personal expenses, he wrote in an email to the city. He drove his own car to Lawrence from Fate, Texas and back.
He calculated that the city owed him $678 based on the IRS mileage rate, plus $17 on tolls.
Kovacs was the first to submit a reimbursement request on May 25, which he put at $1,046, but he had used an incorrect per diem amount. He was reimbursed $913.
Kovacs also provided a breakdown of how he spent his time on the trip. His first day was packed with a 12-hour interview process, and his second day included four hours of studying and interviewing, per his account. “I really enjoyed visiting your community and meeting so many great staff,” he wrote in his email.
Joseph (Joe) Lessard
Lessard also got a bump in his reimbursement request courtesy of the GSA per diem. He asked for $1,299 on June 9, and Shanks reimbursed him for $1,389.
His travel costs, including flights and car rental, were $1,162, plus the $8 he spent to park in the city’s Vermont Street parking garage.
The rest was food purchases at Great Blue Heron, Chipotle, Q39, 715 Restaurant and Wheatfields in Lawrence, and City Market Roasters in Kansas City.
Altogether, the city spent $6,161 bringing the four city manager candidates to town for interviews.
Contractor costs
Outside of the cost for the candidate visits, the city accepted a proposal from Strategic Government Resources for a not-to-exceed price of $28,419 to help guide the city manager search, which began in January.
That total included a $25,919 fixed fee and up to $2,500 in ad placements that would be billed at actual cost, plus travel expenses. The city actually paid SGR $2,418 for ad placements.
Doug Thomas of SGR led the search. His company’s reimbursable travel expenses for two trips totaled $4,021.
The breakdown shows $372 for meals, $90 for mileage, $731 for car rentals and fuel, $980 for hotels, $176 for tolls and parking, and $1,672 for airfare.
SGR submitted its final request for reimbursement Wednesday, Aug. 12.
Additional costs
On top of room charges, city staff spent $1,727 on a luncheon at the hotel.
“The luncheon was on the day of the interviews and included the candidates, executive interview panel, and community panel members,” City Clerk Sherri Riedemann said via email.
City staff spent $1,064 more on supplies and food for the visit, which included materials for the public meet and greet on May 20.
For example, $300 went to 150 cookies from Cleo and Leo (plus a $45 tip), and $205 went to tables, linens and delivery plus pickup charges from Sunflower Rental. The city also spent $108 at Wheatfields and $179 at Olive Garden. The rest of the money went to water bottles, soda and snacks from Amazon and Staples.
Grand total
The grand total for the search, the candidates’ stays in town and associated expenses comes to $41,312.
The advertised salary for the city manager position was $229,153 to $338,769. Al-Ghafry is making an annual base salary of $330,491, plus an annual automobile allowance of $7,800, totaling $338,291, according to his contract.
If local news matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat — get the latest news from the Times delivered to your inbox:
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].
Read their complete bio here. Read their work for the Times here.
— Reporter Mackenzie Clark contributed to this article.
