How Columbus residents can participate in search for new city manager
Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson provided an update on the city manager search during the Columbus Council’s work session Tuesday.
Henderson began preparing the city manager search early this year after former city manager Isaiah Hugley filed paperwork in November 2024 to retire at the end of 2025. When the council fired Hugley in May, Henderson indicated that the timeline on the search would not move faster unless it could be done without sacrificing the process.
At the end of Tuesday’s council meeting, Henderson shared more details about the search. He said it is on schedule and advertisements for the position will begin appearing Aug. 22.
To help the recruitment, the city is working with the Arizona-based management consulting firm Mercer Group Associates. The team from Mercer working with Columbus primarily works in Georgia, Henderson said.
This team does more public sector executive search work in Georgia than any other firm in the state, he said.
The process is designed to allow input from the Columbus Council as well as community stakeholders, Henderson said. Councilors will be allowed to identify the community stakeholders whose input will be used in the recruitment.
“The next steps in the process include first asking each council member to identify two Columbus stakeholders or citizens to participate in an electronic survey, which will solicit their input about their expectations of the new city manager,” Henderson said.
They also will be asked to participate in a group discussion via videoconference to share their thoughts and suggestions based on their survey responses and any matters they believe the mayor should know before recommending city manager candidates, he said.
Councilors were asked to submit names and email addresses for these stakeholders and citizens no later than Aug. 5. The survey should be completed by Aug. 11, and the videoconference will be held Aug. 13.
Mercer Group will provide Henderson with a summary of the survey and the videoconference, he said, which will help him select the candidate.
Along with getting input from the stakeholders, Mercer Group also will hold phone interviews with each councilor to determine their expectations of the new city manager. These interviews also will address issues councilors believe the new city manager should immediately focus on and in the long term.
“This is an effort to try and get council involved in the beginning and not just at the end when a recommendation is made,” Henderson said.
