East Lansing’s City Hall (photo by Dylan Lees for ELi) and a clip of the recruiter’s report to Council on the city manager search.
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City Manager Candidates’ Names Released; Interviews Coming Monday

The City of East Lansing has released the names of the five semi-finalist candidates for the position of city manager. Contenders include Robert Belleman, Tim Dempsey, Adam Kline, Michael Silverman and Collin Mays.

The five semi-finalists were chosen from a pool of 14 applicants, only six of whom currently live in the state of Michigan.

Dempsey is the only internal candidate, as he has been serving as interim director of the Department of Planning, Building and Development for the city since March. Previously, Dempsey worked with the city for 15 years, seven of which he served as Director of Planning, Building and Development and Deputy City Manager.

An initial review indicates at least one of the semi-finalists, Robert Belleman, comes with a recent history of controversy. MLive reported on June 20 that Belleman was ousted just weeks ago from his job as Saginaw County controller amid claims of a “toxic work environment.”

Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), ELi has obtained the recruiter’s blinded summary biographies for all 14 candidates who applied for the position and has reached out to the city to find out which description goes with which candidate. See the recruiter’s report here.

A request has also been submitted by ELi asking that the complete applications of the finalists be released to the public at this time. ELi will continue to provide any material obtained and will be conducting background research on the candidates.

On Monday, Aug. 7, the candidates will be interviewed individually by members of city council and staff and then will together attend a reception that will be open to the public.

The interviews with Council will be open to the public under the Open Meetings Act. Those are expected to begin at 10 a.m. Monday at the Hannah Community Center.

The reception will be from 6-8 p.m. also at the Hannah Community Center. Those who would like to attend the reception are asked to RSVP to Assistant to City Council Tammy Verchereau at tvercher@cityofeastlansing.com by Friday, Aug. 4.

After candidates go through the initial interview process, Council is expected to reconvene Sunday, Aug. 13, to narrow down candidates and potentially bring back finalists for another round of interviews.