The city of Lawrence launched its search for a new city manager this week and hopes to have a new manager in place as early as November.

City officials said in a news release Tuesday that they are setting up a series of stakeholder meetings with business, community and neighborhood groups, other local governments and city employees to get a sense of what qualifications people in the community believe are important for a new manager.

The city also said it will post an online survey on its Lawrence Listens Web page to accept input from other city residents.

Commissioner Mike Amyx said the city is conducting a national search and has hired the executive search firm Ralph Anderson and Associates to lead the search.

“One of the things that was important was to get a lot of community feedback, and I think we’ve been able to do that,” Amyx said.

The person eventually hired will succeed former city manager David Corliss, who resigned effective June 1 to accept a job in Colorado. Diane Stoddard has served as interim city manager since then.

Under Lawrence’s form of government, the elected commission acts as the legislative and policy-setting body. But the city manager is in charge of day-to-day operations of the city, managing the city’s budget and daily expenditures as well as supervising department heads and administrative staff.

Amyx, who is serving as the commission’s point person in the search, said he has a general idea of what he’s looking for in a new city manager.

“For me, obviously I want somebody that cares about Lawrence, Kansas,” Amyx said. “Somebody that’s a good fiscal manager. Somebody that has a vision about how a community develops, understands our priorities that we’ve laid out as a commission today, but is able to see how to move those into the future and come up with strategies to help with that. We need a good strategic planner.”

The city said it expects to take applications for eight weeks, beginning Aug. 17. Commissioners will then interview candidates. They hope to make a selection in late October and have a new city manager in place by late November.