Job Search For Evanston's New City Manager Down To 2 Candidates

EVANSTON, IL — The job of Evanston’s City Manager has been dwindled down to two finalists after two candidates from Massachusetts and Michigan were announced on Friday by city officials.

Snapper Poche, a program director for the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, and John Fournier, the assistant city manager for the City of Ann Arbor, are the finalists for the position.

The Evanston City Council hired recruitment firm Stanton Chase to conduct a second nationwide search for candidates suitable to become chief executive of the municipality — the only city staffer hired directly by alderpeople — the firm identified 75 potential candidates, according to city staff.

Councilmembers narrowed the pool down to five semifinalists and conducted interviews with them during the week of April 4, city staff announced. Three of them were selected for follow-up interviews, and two of those were selected as finalists, whose names will be publicly revealed after they notify their current employers.

Evanston residents will have the opportunity to participate in the next step of the hiring process when the city hosts a candidate town hall via Zoom at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, city officials said. Log-in information for the call may be found here.

In his role in Massachusetts, Poche contributes to the city support and student engagement team, the city said in a news release on Friday, Poche believes strongly that mayors and city leaders are facing more and increasingly complex challenges than at any point during his lifetime, and that the tools and resources offered through the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative can significantly improve a city’s understanding of and capacity to address those challenges, and ultimately drive positive impact for residents.

He said he loves contributing to work that improves government operations and considers navigating bureaucracy a substantially under-appreciated skill.

Prior to joining Harvard, he served as the Director of Code Enforcement for the City of New Orleans and knows first-hand the challenges and rewards of working in a leadership role within a city hall. In New Orleans, Poche’s contributions to strategic alignment, performance management, and process improvement were critical to the city’s success in reducing blighted properties post-Katrina, the release said.

Poche holds a Master's of Public Policy from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, where he was an Irving B. Harris Scholar, and a BS in Biology from Southeastern Louisiana University. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines from 2003 to 2005.

Fournier is helping lead an effort in Ann Arbor to lead transformational changes through a commitment to multi-modal transportation infrastructure and programs, ambitious alternative energy initiatives to meet the pressing challenges posed by global climate change, and—as the interim human resources director for two years—helping to make Ann Arbor an innovative and challenging workplace of choice for talented persons interested in careers in public service, the release said.

Fournier previously worked for the City of Pittsburgh to help turn it into one of America’s most livable cities. As the chief of staff to a member of the City Council, the deputy chief of staff to former Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, and finally as the director of on-street and metered parking for the City of Pittsburgh.

Fournier has led or contributed to major projects in Pittsburgh that helped transform city hall and its neighborhoods. He was the author of the city’s final Act 47 financial plan, a roadmap that led Pittsburgh out from underneath state financial oversight and away from a crippling structural deficit that had plagued the city for decades, the release said. In addition, John worked with colleagues to implement progressive, multi-modal transportation policies that helped make Pittsburgh one of America’s most walkable and bikeable cities.

Kelley Gandurski has served as Evanston's interim city manager since last year's negotiated resignation of former City Manager Erika Storlie amid an investigation into the city's handling of allegations of sexual misconduct among lakefront staff.

The first search, conducted by the Sacramento, California-based firm Cooperative Personnel Services, produced a pair of finalists. But when one of them elected to take a job in Harris County, Texas, city officials decided to start over with a new search firm.

Patch editor Jonah Meadows contributed to this report