Now for a bit of local government trivia. Who is the city manager? And what does a city manager even do?
Don’t feel bad if you don’t know the answer. Many people don’t, which is a problem because the city manager occupies a very important and influential position here in Austin. And now is the time to pay attention because City Council is in the process of selecting a new one… and they need your help.
So what exactly does a city manager do?
In essence, the city manager is the highest unelected official in the City of Austin. The city manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of running the city, its staff, and its many departments.
Think of it like this – City Council creates new policy goals and the city manager makes sure that they actually happen. The city manager is basically the CEO of the city and Council is the board.
So what’s happening now?
Austin’s previous city manager, Marc Ott, left Austin for a new job in DC last year. After that, longtime City of Austin employee Elaine Hart took over as interim city manager. Now, City Council is in the midst of its search for the next city manager (an often long process, since the job is such an important one).
They’ve broken the process into three steps:
- A citizen task force will conduct a community engagement process to see which attributes regular Austinites want to see in their future city manager and will then use that information to make official recommendations to City Council
- A professional recruitment firm will then use those recommendations to search for qualified candidates.
- City Council will look through those candidates and select a new city manager.
So here’s how you can get involved…
We’re currently in the first phase of finding a new city manager and the task force wants to hear from you.
You have a few options for sharing your ideas:
- Fill out this short online survey
- Call 311 and provide your feedback in any language
- Share your feedback in-person at the next task force meeting.
A list of upcoming dates and times can be found here>>
