City manager hiring feels “rushed,” says selection committee member

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- City of El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser is set to hold a news conference Thursday to address the city manager selection process.

This announcement comes more than a day after ABC-7 asked the city for clarification on that process.

The ask for clarification was due to a selection committee member sounding off to ABC-7 about what she's calling the "rush" to fill the city's highest position.

That committee member, Cindy Conroy, explained what is causing her unease.

"(I'm) thinking, 'Okay, we've gone without a city manager for you know, almost a year and a half, we've been running with an interim,'" Conroy said. "But when you start thinking about it, We're going to have an election in less than 80 days. We have, if you include the mayor, we have six council positions that are up for re-election or will be seating new council members. And now we're rushing to hire a new city manager. And in my mind, this is not the way corporate America works, this is not the way I've seen the public sector work," added Conroy, who is an assistant vice president at WestStar Bank.

Conroy says City Rep. Isabel Salcido asked her four weeks ago to join the City Manager Selection Committee.

But she says the day after her appointment, city representatives announced they had whittled the applications down from 80 to four, and the final four candidates are currently employed by the city of El Paso.

When asked what she thought when she heard the announcement, Conroy said, "'Well, what am I doing?' That was one of those things where I was like, 'Why did they ask if I wanted to be in this process, because they already announced the finalists. Why did you need any community input?'" Conroy continued, adding, "It doesn't make sense. If we're going to get the best, and the best may be internal, but it would be nice to know that there was that search that we could see that. But, you know, we don't know, and we will never know."

ABC-7 reached out to the city's spokeswoman on Tuesday, seeking more information on the committee's mission and for a response to Conroy's comment about the process being rushed.

Those answers may come during the mayor's news conference Thursday afternoon to address the city manager selection process.

Be sure to watch ABC-7 at 4 for updates.