The new Mountlake Terrace city manager has a familiar face.
That’s because the city council has hired Interim City Manager Scott Hugill to replace former City Manager Arlene Fisher, who resigned last year in lieu of termination.
The city council announced Hugill’s hiring Monday after interviewing him and two others last weekend.
The others were Richard Leahy, former city manager of Woodinville, and Jill Anderson, city manager in Riverbank, Calif.
Finalists met community members Friday before interviews by council members Saturday.
The Council worked with recruiting firm Colin Baenziger &Associates, which helped narrow city-manager candidates from 40 applicants for the position. The firm did screening interviews and background and reference checks.
The firm, which had conducted the 2013 search that led to Fisher’s hiring in 2014, did this year’s search for free because the first search came with a guarantee that the firm would provide a free search if the person hired didn’t stay two years.
Hugill also had been interim city manager after longtime City Manager John Caulfield left in 2013. He was not a candidate in that years’ city-manager search.
Hugill came to Mountlake Terrace as administrative services director in 2004 and has been assistant city manager behind both Caulfield and Fisher.
Hugill previously was city administrator for the city of Leavenworth for more than six years. He worked in the Lacey city manager’s office from 1991 to 98.
Hugill has a bachelor of science degree in political science from Western Washington University and a master of public administration degree from The Evergreen State College in Olympia.
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.
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