Finalists for Lawrence’s next city manager to be announced this week; community meeting to follow

Final candidates for the position of city manager will be announced this week, and an event to allow residents to weigh in on the finalists will occur soon.

The Lawrence City Commission conducted the first round of in-person interviews for city manager with a pool of six candidates in closed session Saturday. Mayor Lisa Larsen said at the commission’s most recent meeting that the commission planned to select two or three finalists from the interview pool who will be publicly announced Wednesday.

Larsen said the finalists would be invited back to participate in additional in-person interviews and meetings with the community.

Specifically, Larsen said that as part of the second round of interviews, finalists are tentatively scheduled to hold community meetings on April 7. As part of the meetings, Larsen said each finalist would give a 30-minute presentation and then answer questions from the community for approximately 30 minutes. The event will be recorded on video, and Larsen said residents would be able to submit their thoughts about the candidates to the commission.