The selection process for Asheville's most powerful unelected official will take another step forward on May 19, when City Council members interview seven applicants seeking to take retiring City Manager Jim Westbrook's place. The list is being whittled down from the 18 whom management consultant Bob Slavin culled from an unexpectedly large pool of 92 applicants.
"We will get that list shortened to a smaller number -- two, three, four, somewhere like that that we feel very comfortable with it," Councilman Jan Davis told Xpress, "and then the public will come into the process as far as being able to meet with those people."
Council members have promised that the selection process -- which has been closed to public scrutiny so far -- will include an opportunity for the public to meet and question the finalists. At press time, however, no date or format for this event had been set, and Council members hadn't indicated whether they will take public input on the finalists before voting on a final choice, as the city manager did last year before hiring a new police chief.
"I feel pretty good about the quality of applicants we've got," Davis assured Xpress, though he said he couldn't comment on whether any of the candidates were current residents.
Asked about the qualities he would be looking for in a city manager, Davis replied: "Well, I like Westbrook's management style -- he has very good abilities to hire good department heads, and I like that in a manager. ... I would like to have probably a manager that is open to public process; not that Westbrook isn't, just that Westbrook is a good, strong leader."
-- Steve Rasmussen