The three Lawrence city manager finalists are, from left: Roderick “Rod” Bremby of Glastonbury, Conn.; Cheryl Harrison-Lee of Gardner, Kan.; and Thomas “Tom” Markus of Iowa City, Iowa.

About six months after former City Manger David Corliss resigned, the city will meet the three candidates Dec. 17 who are vying to fill the position of Lawrence’s top nonelected official.

City commissioners will hold final interviews Dec. 18, after which they will select the next city manager and start the negotiation process.

With less than two weeks before a decision is made, the Journal-World spoke again with the candidates, this time to talk more about their past experiences and their plans for what they’d do in the first few months as city manager.

Rod Bremby

Bremby lived in Lawrence for 23 years, first as a student at Kansas University and then as a city employee, a KU employee, and most recently as Secretary for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

He now lives in Glastonbury, Conn., and serves as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Social Services.

Bremby, 55, has cited his recent work with Connecticut’s Medicaid expansion and past experience in environmental health and with the state and city as reasons he’d be a fit for the city manager position.

“It’s not just the knowledge of Lawrence, it’s living in Lawrence. I lived here for most of my adult life,” Bremby said. “I know the beat of the community. I think it’s a tremendous asset to not only have knowledge of Lawrence but to be a Lawrencian.”

From August 1990 to March 2000, Bremby served as Lawrence’s assistant city manager. At the time, the city manager was Mike Wildgen, who remained in the position for 16 years before Corliss took over in 2006.

As the city’s only assistant city manager, Bremby was tasked with preparing and administering the city’s budget and served as manager of the Lawrence Municipal Airport.

He said he was behind the airport’s installation of an instrument landing system and other improvements that enabled air traffic to increase. Bremby also noted he helped write a grant proposal for Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center that put social workers in Lawrence schools.

It was later — several years after former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius appointed him as KDHE secretary — when Bremby and his now ex-wife filed for personal Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

In the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Kansas City, Kan., Bremby and his ex-wife listed assets of approximately $464,000 and liabilities of $595,000.

A final report on the bankruptcy stated the Brembys’ case was closed in July 2012. According to the report, they paid a total of $74,817 in debts, including about $47,000 to the Internal Revenue Service.

Bremby said Friday that he “self-disclosed” the bankruptcy in the screening process for the city manager position and has given the City Commission access to court documents related to the bankruptcy.

“I would say that it’s an artifact of what was a difficult and painful time,” he said. “It’s important to say that the petition allowed us to develop a court-approved and monitored plan to pay our creditors.

“It’s appropriate for Lawrencians to be concerned and wanting the City Commission to have full knowledge of all of the candidates. This is the one of the most important decisions that any city commission would make. I’m just hopeful that this issue doesn’t cloud the community’s perspective about what I can offer.”

If Bremby were hired for the job, he would spend the first few months becoming refamiliarized with city operations and developing internal goals for City Hall that would “map back to the City Commission’s strategic goals,” he said.

He noted a few issues in Lawrence that he’d likely be working on, including getting more companies located at Lawrence’s VenturePark and planning for development along the Kansas Highway 10 corridor. Bremby also mentioned recent discussions about a few other topics: infill development, the East Ninth Project and mental health programs.

“I’ll assess how to engage with those issues, what to bring to those situations and how the staff is already approaching those,” Bremby said.

Tom Markus

Markus, 64, has served as a city manager or administrator since 1977 and has worked in city government his entire career.

According to his resume, Markus started out in Waseca, Minn., then went to Wheeling, Ill., then to Savage, Minn., then back to Wheeling, then to Brooklyn Park, Minn.

His longest tenure was in Birmingham, Mich., where he was city manager for 21 years. In Birmingham, Markus led efforts to add to city property, including obtaining more parks, a parking facility and constructing a new fire station, police range and golf course.

He helped develop a racial conflict response plan in Birmingham, helped with long-range streetscape planning, and worked to create a principal shopping district.

At his current position — city manager of Iowa City, Iowa — Markus was tasked when he started five years ago with implementing a citywide strategic planning process. Markus said the city recently completed its third iteration of that.

According to the city’s website, the plan in 2014-15 had five areas of focus: healthy neighborhoods, a strong urban core, strategic economic development activities, a solid financial foundation and enhanced communication and marketing.

It was his job, Markus said, to work on the issues the city council identified as priorities.

In an article about Markus’ possible departure published last week by The Daily Iowan, Iowa City Mayor Matt Hayek was reported as saying Markus “recharged City Hall” and “helped the council focus on numerous strategic priorities.”

Markus described Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa, as a “slightly smaller version of Lawrence.” He said both communities face the same types of challenges, including affordable housing and suburban sprawl.

During his visit to Lawrence in November, when city commissioners interviewed the top eight city manager candidates, Markus walked parts of the city — mostly downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. He said he identified “walkability and bikability issues” that “should probably be addressed.”

Markus noted his work in the downtown districts of other cities and said he’d like to be involved in maintaining Lawrence’s.

In Iowa City, Markus worked with local business owners to create a self-supporting municipal improvement district in the city’s downtown. Under Iowa state law, those types of districts have an additional property tax levy, and the extra revenue is used for improvements to the area.

In Wheeling, in the 1980s, Markus helped create a downtown redevelopment plan and tax increment financing district.

“I’ve spent a lot of effort and time working in historic downtowns, and I was really impressed with Lawrence’s downtown area,” Markus said. “Something that I think I would continue to enjoy is that involvement to sustain and build on what they have.”

If hired for the job, Markus said, in his first few months as city manager, “a whole lot of engagement needs to be done.”

“I need to communicate, to understand the culture and to take that information and work with the council to determine what their priorities are going to be and how they want to move forward,” he said.

Cheryl Harrison-Lee

Harrison-Lee’s work in city and state government over the past 30-plus years has taken her from Florida to Kansas, where she wants to build the second phase of her career, she said.

As the city manager of Gardner for the past three years, Harrison-Lee helped develop the city’s long-range plan and created a “vision.” On Monday, Gardner will reveal a new city logo as part of a rebranding effort — a type of project she said she could bring to Lawrence.

In her first few months as city manager, Harrison-Lee, 53, said she would conduct a “listening tour,” in which she would ask city leaders to take her around Lawrence and listen to their thoughts on what works and what doesn’t.

She’d then ask the City Commission to have a goal-setting session and set three-, six-, nine- and 12-month milestones.

“I believe that while I am an expert in planning, the residents are experts in their community,” Harrison-Lee said. “I believe I am an expert in municipal leadership, but I think I’m not in the community culture. And so what I want to do is take my expertise and experience and match it with what I’m hearing in the community. I feel like I’m a steward of a community vision.”

In Gardner, Harrison-Lee helped establish the city’s economic development incentives policy.

As city administrative officer of Eatonville, Fla., several years ago, she negotiated for the purchase of 100 acres to create economic development opportunities. While working in Daytona Beach, Fla., and as chief of growth management in Orlando, Harrison-Lee annexed land that has since been used for economic development.

“I feel like I’ve had great experiences, taking areas like (Lawrence’s) VenturePark and creating a foundation for the long-term,” she said.

Harrison-Lee noted it “would be important” for Lawrence to have a vision for future development and what types of businesses it is looking to attract.

“Then, we develop incentives aligned with that,” she said. “I think it’s very important to align resources with priorities.”

In addition to the jobs previously mentioned, Harrison-Lee has held positions with the cities of Titusville, Fla., and Orlando Beach, Fla., the Florida Department of Transportation, the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority and Orlando’s transit system, Lynx.

According to an article from the Orlando Sentinel in 2003, Harrison-Lee was let go from Lynx, where she served as the agency’s director of planning and technology, soon after an interim chief executive officer was hired. The article states Harrison-Lee and another executive were let go because of financial reasons.

“I had a good track record with Lynx, and, had it not been for financial restrictions, I probably would have had a longer term,” Harrison-Lee said Saturday.

Harrison-Lee was also briefly mentioned in the Orlando Sentinel in 2011 when then-Eatonville Mayor Bruce Mount made a motion at a council meeting to terminate her as the city’s chief administrative officer. According to a short write-up about the incident, there was a dispute over what time Harrison-Lee was showing up to work. The council voted against the motion, 4-1.

“It’s not uncommon to have different opinions in a work environment,” she said Saturday. “One person was unhappy, but the council ruled in my favor. “

Harrison-Lee said her work now in the Kansas City metro area would help with the transition to Lawrence.

“I have a good understanding of what’s going on because I’m already in the metro area,” she said. “We have the same regional problems, and I understand who the key stakeholders are.”