By Moses Leos III

Nearly a month after its former city manager submitted his resignation, the Kyle City Council took its first steps on Saturday toward filling that vacancy.

While council directed staff to seek a search firm to help, it’s still unknown if Kyle will look internally or externally for the hire. 

Discussions on how to move forward took place Saturday at a special called meeting.  City council deliberated both on the dais and in executive session on how to move forward.

While Kyle will actively seek a successor to former City Manager Lanny Lambert, Assistant City Manager James Earp will work as acting City Manager in the interim. It will be the second time Earp will take the reigns as acting city manager. He was nominated to the position prior to the hiring of Lambert in December 2010. 

“James has a high level of consistency,” Webster said. “I have 100 percent confidence of him to manage the position [in the interim].” 

In August, Lambert announced he would be leaving to take the city manager position in Converse, located outside of San Antonio. He told Hays Free Press he wished to be closer to his family in Helotes. 

However, Lambert also said in August he sought a new employer after the city failed to renegotiate his contract earlier in the year. The city showed no signs of moving forward. Former Kyle Mayor Lucy Johnson told the Hays Free Press in June that she hadn’t received enough performance evaluations from councilmembers to consider Lambert’s contract. 

Now Webster and the council will work to find someone to fill the city’s top administrative post. It will be done with an “ambitious” timeline that will work backward from November 15. The goal, according to Webster, is to avoid holiday interference. 

At Saturday’s meeting, council directed staff to identify three potential search firms at the Sept. 15 meeting. 

Council members David Wilson and Samantha Bellows-Lemense agreed on bringing an outside search firm. Bellows-Lemense said it would “help expedite the process.” 

Mayor Pro-Tem Diane Hervol stressed the council’s need to be heavily involved with staff when selecting the next city manager. 

“In my opinion, it will be a turning point for our city, especially with economic development,” Hervol said. 

But will the city look for an internal hire, or seek an external voice? 

Currently, council hasn’t decided which way to go. 

Webster and Bellows-Lemense said want to look externally. Bellows-Lemense said she seeks a city manager that is a liaison for council and citizens, and is innovative, but responsible when it comes to pro-growth mentalities. 

While Webster said it’s possible to establish a culture change with an internal hire, he felt that task could be accomplished faster if they looked outside. 

However, he said afterward that he does have confidence in his staff. 

 “With each successive city manager, there’s an opportunity for the city to take a leap forward just in terms of sophistication of the operation,” Webster said on the dais. “With ideas and insight, there’s an opportunity to bring knowledge from some other place.”

But the clock is now ticking as Kyle’s search for its next city manager begins. 

“Council is committed to putting in the time to meet that timeline,” Webster said.