photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Clockwise from top left are Lawrence city manager candidates Majed Al-Ghafry, Joe Fivas, Michael Kovacs and Joe Lessard, pictured at a meet-and-greet event on Wednesday, May 20, 2026.

Lawrence city commissioners are expected to reveal the name of the new city manager on Tuesday morning.

The city announced on Friday that there would be a special meeting at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., for the commission to approve the new manager’s contract, and that the manager’s identity would be revealed at that time.

The contract was attached to the meeting agenda, and includes an annual base salary of $330,491.20. It also states that the City Commission will be conducting an evaluation of the manager’s performance during his first six months of work. If he meets or exceeds expectations on this evaluation, he will be eligible for a 2.5% salary increase. In each year thereafter, “upon attainment of a successful evaluation at the end of each year of the City Manager’s employment, the City Manager shall be eligible for an adjustment consistent with the City’s compensation plan.”

Also included in the contract are an annual automobile allowance of $7,800 and reimbursement of up to $50,000 for moving expenses. (If the city manager leaves the position within two years, he will have to repay part of the moving expense reimbursement.)

If the city manager is “separated from employment with the City without cause” or “chooses to resign in lieu of being terminated without cause after being offered the opportunity to do so,” he will be eligible for severance pay of a year of his salary. That includes if the city changes its form of government to one that does not use a city manager. He will not be entitled to severance if fired for malfeasance or misconduct or if he voluntarily leaves for any other reason.

It’s now been two weeks since the City Commission first voted to begin negotiations with a candidate, and a little over a month since former City Manager Craig Owens left his position.

The four city manager finalists, who were narrowed down from a pool of 60 candidates, were Majed Al-Ghafry, currently manager of DeSoto, Texas; Joe Fivas, currently manager of Cleveland, Tennessee; Michael Kovacs, currently manager of Fate, Texas; and Joe Lessard, who currently works as a consultant and whose most recent city manager job was in Ashland, Oregon. A fifth finalist who dropped out of consideration before the candidates’ in-person visit to Lawrence at the end of May was David Vela.