Since the announcement in July that current city manager Greg Sparks would be retiring, the City of Eureka has whittled down the pool of hopeful replacements to five potential candidates who will be interviewed next month.

Learn more about how this has all played out in the City of Eureka press release below: 

The Eureka City Council has retained HUELife, an executive search firm, to assist in the recruitment of the next City Manager for the City of Eureka. Richard Fursman, Co-Founder of HUELife has led the recruitment effort on behalf of the City Council. HUELife received 40 applications for City Manager, which were due on August 31, 2019. Mr. Fursman moved 17 applications forward to first round interviews in which 10 semi-finalists were identified.

At the September 24th Closed Session meeting, Council reviewed the 10 applications and resumes and chose 6 finalists to be interviewed by the Council on October 11-12, 2019. One applicant has withdrawn from the process leaving the Council with five applicants to interview. Working with HUELife, an extensive interview process has been established allowing for community input and review of each of the applicants.

Beginning on Friday, October 11th, applicants will meet with City Council and staff and then tour the City of Eureka. At 5:00 PM, a community forum will be held at the Wharfinger Building to allow the public to meet the candidates and hear a brief introduction from each candidate.

On Saturday, October 12th, applicants will be interviewed by a community panel, selected by the Mayor and Council, city department directors and the Mayor and City Council Members. The Mayor and Councilmembers each selected a member of the community to serve on the community panel along with a member from the Eureka City School Board. The seven-member panel consists of the following individuals:

Donna Wright, Heidi Benzonelli-Burden, Shelly Nilsen, Mike Buettner, Sean McLaughlin, Jeff Leonard and Mike Duncan of the Eureka City School Board.

The five applicant names will be released once each candidate has accepted the offer to move forward in the process and prior to the October 11th meeting.

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