City Manager Spencer Cronk on Tuesday, Feb. 19, rolled out the short lists for the two remaining assistant city manager positions created by his City Hall reorganization that began last summer. For this pair of hires – overseeing “mobility” and “safety” – Cronk has once again pitted current senior staffers against out-of-towners. For the mobility post – a successor to departed ACM Robert Goode, now with the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority – we have the two de facto heirs apparent, Public Works Director Richard Mendoza and Transportation Director Rob Spillar; two other key infrastructure staffers, Deputy Chief Financial Officer Greg Canally and Austin Water’s assistant director for engineering, Chris Chen; and two high-profile outsiders, Gina Fiandaca and Michael Rogers, Spillar’s counterparts in Boston and Dallas, respectively.
Over in the safety slot, current ACM Rey Arellano gets to compete for his current job against Ronnelle Paulsen, assistant director of the Austin Fire Department, and two outside candidates, Gina Montes from Arizona and Genaro “Chip” Iglesias from Miami, both with experience similar to Arellano’s current public safety portfolio. Interviews will occur “in the coming weeks”; Cronk, who celebrated his first anniversary on the job this month, has also begun recruitment for the deputy city manager position, a replacement for retiring Elaine Hart.
This article appears in February 22 • 2019.