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The Knoxville City Council has selected a search firm to assist them in hiring a new City Manager. Two different firms were interviewed by the council recently and Brimeyer-Fursman LLC, which is the firm the city used when hiring Dick Schrad five years ago, was selected at the meeting Monday night. Schrad says both firms were reputable but the deciding factor was the comfort level of working with a company who they have done business with before.

Schrad says now that the selection has been made the hiring process will begin soon as representatives from the search firm will be in Knoxville in the next few weeks to begin working with the City Council to identify the desired characteristics of the future City Manager. He says the urgency is because the municipal budget season starts shortly and the council wants to be ahead of that in order to give the potential candidate time to make arrangements to finish their own budget. He says the goal is to have a very orderly process so that no one is pushed or rushed, therefore the Council would like to begin looking in November.

The agreement with Brimeyer-Fursman was approved for $15,750 plus expenses which are not to exceed $4,200. Councilman Wims stated that while they need to spend money wisely, he feels hiring a search firm will save money long term by being able to select a certified City manager. The decision was made unanimously.