Austin mayor releases names of finalist for city manager job

On Monday afternoon Mayor Steve Adler released the names of the finalist to be Austin’s next city manager. 
According to the city’s message board the six finalist will return for another round of interviews conducted by the Mayor,City Council and the Search Task Force.

Adler identified the following as finalists for the next round of interviews:
• Spencer Cronk
• Cecil House
• Scott Kubly 
• Howard Lazarus 
• Denise Roth
• Maura Sullivan

The next interviews are scheduled to take place on Sunday, December 3, 2017.
According to a press release the following professional experience was shared on each of the finalist. 

Spencer Cronk:

Cronk was hired as Minneapolis City Coordinator City Administrator in 2014. His job was to direct the management of Minneapolis city government by assisting the Mayor and City Council in defining City policy and establishing priorities, mobilizing department heads and staff to implement the Mayor and Council’s priorities, and working to strengthen the management and administrative systems of the City.

Before joining the State of Minnesota, Cronk served as executive director of organizational development and senior advisor for the Department of Small Business Services for the City of New York, under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Cecil R. House:

House served as attorney and senior operations executive with experience in both the private and public sectors. He currently leads the public sector construction practice for the New York office of Gilbane Building Company.

Prior to joining Gilbane, House was the General Manager and Chief Operating Officer of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) where he was responsible for the operations of the nation’s largest public housing authority, managing over 179,000 units and 95,000 housing vouchers.
House also served as Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer at Public Service Electric & Gas in New Jersey and Vice President of Business Development at Automatic Data Processing, Inc.

Scott Kubly:
Kubly has been director of the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) since 2014.  Prior to joining the department, Kubly served as deputy director of the Chicago Department of Transportation and, before that, as associate director for the District Department of Transportation in Washington, DC.

Kubly was also a lead architect of the voter-approved Levy to Move Seattle, which provides $930 million to improve safety, maintain streets and bridges, and invest in reliable, affordable travel options for a growing city.

Kubly also attended middle school and high school in Austin and has a Masters in Community and Regional Planning for the University of Texas and an MBA from The Wharton School.


Howard Lazarus:

Lazarus would be a familiar face to many in Austinities. Lazarus previously served the City of Austin, Texas, as Director of Public Works from 2008 to 2016 and was responsible for a 720-person department delivering planning, design and execution of the City capital improvement program. 
Prior to his employment by the City of Austin, Mr. Lazarus has worked in the private section, for the City of Newark, New Jersey and the U.S. Army.

Lazarus holds a Bachelor of Science from the US Military Academy, West Point and a Master of Science in Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. He is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College and the Senior Executives in State and Local Government, Kennedy School.

Denise Roth:
Roth previously served as the administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration and was appointed to serve in this position by President Barack Obama. Throughout her 20 years of public service, Roth has held various leadership positions at the federal and local government levels.
She served as administrator for the General Services Administration (GSA) from March 2015 to January 2017, leading a workforce of 12,000 full-time employees with responsibility for a $27 billion budget.

Prior to joining GSA, Ms. Roth served as city manager for Greensboro, North Carolina. Her leadership helped pave the way for several new and creative management changes in the city.
Roth earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and government from George Mason University, where she also received an honorary doctorate of letters in recognition of her distinguished public service.

Maura Sullivan:
Sullivan serves as the Chief Operating Officer for the City of Chattanooga, Tenn. 
Prior to this, she was the interim Executive Director of the Memphis Housing Authority. 
Sullivan previously the City of Memphis as Deputy Chief Administrative Officer. In this role she served as a member of the Mayor’s executive team and works to coordinate operations of all divisions of Memphis city government, with over 6,000 employees and an annual operating budget in excess of $600 million.

Sullivan has undergraduate and graduate degrees in public administration and international relations from the University of Memphis.