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.

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.