Meadowlakes in final stages of city manager search
The Meadowlakes City Council on Sept. 16 will interview two final candidates for city manager, possibly ending a lengthy process to replace long-time leader Johnnie Thompson, who’s leaving the post in December.
Thompson announced his retirement in January with his last day scheduled for September. The city had hoped to find his replacement by May, but the search did not go as planned.
After receiving a slew of unsuitable candidate applications from a job posting on the Texas Municipal League website, the city turned to executive recruitment firm Clear Career Professionals in July to take over the search.
That new effort resulted in 27 possible candidates, which has been narrowed down to two.
According to Mayor Mark Bentley, a candidate could be hired after the Sept. 16 interviews if everything goes smoothly.
“The last two candidates are good. They don’t have everything that Johnnie has, but it’s obvious that they’re highly qualified and we can’t go wrong with either one of them,” he told DailyTrib.com.
Thompson served the community of Meadowlakes before it was a city, working as the manager of the Meadowlakes Municipal Utility District from 1978 to 2006. When Meadowlakes incorporated in 2006, he took over as city manager, a role he has maintained ever since.
“It’s going to be a task (replacing Thompson),” Bentley said.
The Meadowlakes city manager is responsible for running the day-to-day operations and managing the budget of the 1,900-resident gated city, whose borders are within Marble Falls.