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Politics & Government

Hopkins City Manager Search Stays on the Fast Track

City Council on board with a timeline that aims to have a new city manager start in August.

The Hopkins City Council is sticking with an aggressive pace for its city manager search, which should have a new manager at the city in August.

The busy search process will be peppered in between Fourth of July, the Raspberry Festival and road renovations.

Jim Brimeyer and Richard Fursman, of the executive search firm Brimeyer Fursman, have crafted a four-phased approach—with the first phase taking place last night when they met with the mayor and the rest of the city council to discuss the timeline.

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Phase 2 will run through mid-June and will include placing announcements, recruiting, reviewing résumés, interviews and the selection of the top five finalists. 

Phase 3 includes more-thorough background checks, developing a compensation package and negotiations. Phase 4 involves "onboarding"—or helping the city manager transition into his or her new job.

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The city manager's duties include supervising day-to-day operations of all city departments, preparing a draft city budget with various options for the council to vote on, meeting with citizens and overseeing city infrastructure.

The council members are excited to get the process underway. The last city manager profile was developed just six years ago, which allows council to move faster than the last time it hired a new manager. The hiring of Police Chief Mike Reynolds in 2010 also gave council members valuable insight into hiring city heads.

The city and Brimeyer Group still welcome public input, though. The executive search firm is inviting various organizations and residents to an April 19 community meeting where questions will be answered and concerns will be given voice. Between 6 p.m. and 7:30pm, council members and the search firm will be available to speak to the Hopkins community.

"I have no problem talking with the public outside of the meeting. They can either e-mail me or call my office with concerns," Brimeyer added.

He can be reached at brimgroup@aol.com or by calling 651-204-0441.

The full schedule is as follows:

  • Apr. 19: The community meeting will take place from 6:00pm to 7:30pm.
  • Apr. 26: Council formally approves city manager profile.
  • May 27: Résumés are due.
  • June 14: Progress report/selection of finalists.
  • July 7-8: Interviews.
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