Winooski Continues Search for City Manager

The city of Winooski will reconvene its search committee the week of Feb. 21 to review candidates as it continues looking for a new city manager.

In December, the city council hired the recruiting agency GovHR to assist its search. In a recent interview, Winooski Mayor Kristine Lott said that the pool of potential applicants for city manager positions is small nationwide. 

"What we've seen coming in is strong, so I'm feeling good about that," Lott said. "Better to have fewer but better candidates, I think."

This is the city's second search in 11 months. An initial effort last summer failed to produce a candidate. Near the end of the previous search, Equity Director Yasamin Gordon made a list of recommendations to improve future hiring efforts. 

The city is implementing the recommendations which included "working with a recruiter, setting a tighter timeline, and creating a less formal way for public engagement with candidates," Lott said.

Lott said that Winooski's seven-person search committee has representatives from the city, school, local business, partner organizations, and others. About half of the initial participants will rejoin the committee, she said. 

The city hired Wendy Harrison as interim city manager in October. The city manager runs the day-to-day operations of the city, while the mayor is an elected position more focused on policy and budgetary concerns. 

The hiring process is scheduled to open to public input the week of March 7, with the final candidate selected later that month.