Corpus Christi City Council members are sharing what they want to see in the newly-announced city manager candidates.
Council members will be a key component in the selection process of the next city manager. They were presented a list of six candidates, along with their brief bios, during a special called meeting Wednesday.
Councilman Ben Molina said one imperative qualification is managerial experience in a large city. He said this narrowed list will make the vetting process easier.
“One thing that I’m looking forward to is a background check, of course. I want to make sure that whoever is applying, that they do have a good clean record and there’s no criminal history in there,” Molina said. “We want to do our part in making sure that we pick the right choice.”
As KRIS 6 News previously reported, some candidates have been in the public eye within recent years.
“We care about someone that may have been let go because of not handling things with water issues,” Paulette Guajardo said. “That’s probably not something that we’re going to not focus in on, so there are absolutely some concerns.”
However, Councilman Greg Smith said there are often two sides to every story.
“There’s a lot of things about some of these people. Anybody that’s in the public eye has negative things, so we’re going to look closely at that, and our mind is open to it. We’re going to see what the facts are behind those stories,” Smith said.
While there has been no definitive timeline on the selection process, council members said the public can expect a final decision by sometime in May. There is also no word on when the interview process will begin for the six candidates.
