Mountlake Terrace city-manager candidates to appear at reception Friday

The three finalists for Mountlake Terrace city manager will meet community members at a reception Friday.

The candidates include Mountlake Terrace’s interim city manager, Scott Hugill. Another candidate is Richard Leahy, who was city manager in Woodinville from 2007 until last month. The third is Jill Anderson, city manager in Riverbank, Calif.

Community members will have a chance to meet the candidates at the reception scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday at the Mountlake Terrace Senior Center and Community Clubhouse at Ballinger Park, 23000 Lakeview Drive, and to give opinions to city council members.

The council will meet Saturday at 8:45 a.m. at the Mountlake Terrace City Hall, 6100 219th St. S.W., Suite 220, to interview the finalists. A selection may come as early as that day.

The City Council announced the names of the finalists after a meeting Monday.

The Council worked with the recruiting firm Colin Baenziger &Associates, which helped narrow city-manager candidates from 40 applicants for the position. The firm has done screening interviews and background and reference checks.

Colin Baenziger &Associates did the search for free because the manager hired in its previous search didn’t stay two years.

The firm had conducted the 2013 search that led to the city’s hiring of Arlene Fisher, with a guarantee of providing a free recruiting service if the person hired didn’t stay for at least two years.

Fisher, hired in 2014, resigned in 2015 in lieu of termination.

Since Fisher resigned, Hugill, the assistant city manager, has been the interim city manager.

Mountlake Terrace has a council-manager form of government, in which the seven elected part-time city council members appoint a full-time professional city manager as the city’s chief executive officer. The council elects one of its members to have the title of mayor while presiding over council meetings and carrying out ceremonial duties.

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.