Just got back from watching the community meeting.

I want to thank my colleagues for, the Waterland Blog’s Scott Schaefer for recording, our staff who were so welcoming to the four applicants, and the 60+ residents who attended, including several previous councilmembers (and two mayors!)

But sixty people is not nearly enough! So please watch this video and please keep looking at the City Manager Applicant Bios and send me your comments!

Each of the applicants seemed to understand Des Moines pretty well. And each seemed to address most of the key issues I hear about from residents. Each took questions from the public, people filled out comment cards, and all the feedback I heard was very thoughtful.

Girlfriend, this may come as something of a surprise, but a lot of the time, I do not feel all that great about the work I’m doing. However, I walked out of that Beach Park Auditorium and I can honestly say that regardless of who gets the job, I will feel good about it.

Which is all that matters, of course. 😀

But considering that this is, by far, the single most important decision the Council makes, I hope you also will be pleased.

Next step? Tomorrow night, we will have a marathon four hour Executive Session to interview each applicant in private. Then another ES on September 3 to de-brief. And then another public meeting later in the month to make a decision. One step at a time. 🙂

But after a nine year… er… month… process may finally to be coming to an end.