City manager interviews to begin

By Charles Sercombe

The search for a permanent city manager marches on.

The deadline for applications was Nov. 16, and the city council narrowed the field of 16 candidates to three.

The council will conduct interviews with the candidates this Saturday (Dec. 1) in City Hall, starting at 9 a.m. The interviews will run about four to five hours. The public is allowed to sit on the interviews, but may not participate.

The three candidates are: Darwin McClary, Laurence Shaffer and Ann Capela.

None of the candidates are currently employed. McClary is the former city manager of Eastpointe, Shaffer had been in Jackson and Capela last served in Inkster.

Hamtramck has seen one city manager after another come and go in the last year. William Cooper was the last city manager to hold the position for any considerable length of time.

He was let go in March as the city’s financial woes continued to increase. Next up were two acting city managers, Erik Tungate and then Nevrus Nazarko, who had been city finance director for the city for 14 years.

Both only lasted a short time.

The current acting city manager is Kyle Tertzag, who is the former city manager of Woodhaven.

Tertzag did not apply for the Hamtramck job because he lacks the minimum requirement of time spent being a city manager, according to Hamtramck’s charter requirements.

But that didn’t stop Councilmember Tom Jankowski from suggesting holding off from hiring a permanent city manager and negotiate with Tertzag to stay on as acting city manager.

The city council decided to move forward with the interviews.

Tertzag told The Review he has no interest in staying in the position.