The City Council held a special meeting on February 26, 2026, to conduct structured interviews with two finalists for the position of city manager: Hyan Kim (interim city manager) and Yolanda Lewis. The process, facilitated by Continuous Improvement Officer Ben Thurgood, included a 45-minute interview with each candidate, with consistent questions asked to ensure fairness. The meeting included roll call, a review of the selection process, and council member responses to a candidate question about partnership.
Good morning. I'd like to call to order the city council special meeting of February 26, 2026. Clerk, please call the roll. Deputy Mayor Bushnell? Present. Councilmember Diaz? Here. Councilmember Heinz. Here. Councilmember Palmer. Councilmember Rumba? Here. Councilmember Sidalgay? Here. Councilmember Scott? Here. Councilmember Walker? Here. Mayor Ibsen? Here. All right. I'd like to call on Ben Thurgood, our facilitator for today's interviews to get us started. Good morning, Council. Hello, I'm Ben Thurgood, Continuous Improvement Officer for the City of Tacoma. And I'm here to facilitate this interview. My role is to open and close the interviews, clarify who will ask which questions, keep the interview on time and ensure consistent experience across interviews. Before we begin, I'd like to give you and the viewing public some background on the process. The City of Tacoma has been working with Profman and City Human Resources since August of 2025 on this important recruitment for our next city manager. The process included a national search, which resulted in 72 applications from 16 states in the District of Columbia, 40 from within Washington, and 32 from outside of the state. Profman conducted an initial screening of all applicants, reviewing resumes, cover letters, and written responses submitted as part of the application process. Based on the qualifications outlined in the city manager's formal position description and input from the mayor and the city council, 19 applicants were identified as meeting or exceeding the minimum requirements, and were invited to participate in preliminary Zoom interviews with Prothman. Following these interviews, two applicants withdrew from the process. Profman then conducted in-depth interviews with the remaining 17 candidates and prepared detailed interview notes and application materials for your review. After reviewing those materials, the council invited five candidates to advance to the next step. One additional candidate withdrew at that stage. And the council completed interviews with four remaining candidates. Following deliberations in executive session, the council voted in open session to invite two candidates forward as finalists for the position, bringing us to today's interviews. And now transitioning to the interviews. As you know, there will be two interviewing candidates today, Hyan Kim and Yolanda Lewis. Each interview will last 45 minutes with a 15-minute feedback session in between interviews. The goal of the interview is to assess each candidate fairly and consistently against job-related competencies and requirements, using a structured process that minimizes bias and ensures equal opportunity for each candidate. The interview process provides an opportunity for both the panel and candidates to learn about one another and assess how effectively they can work together. It is also a chance to evaluate the candidates' leadership and management abilities as well as their capacity to lead the organization and serve the community. During the interview, please ask questions as written in the same order for each candidate. Feel free to ask follow-up questions to gain clarity and understanding, but try to avoid asking substantially new or different questions to ensure consistency across the interviews. Let's begin by assigning the interview questions. So there are nine questions. I heard one idea to have it be by your position number on council, or we could start in one place and go clockwise. Is there a desire? Preferences.