photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Majed Al-Ghafry speaks to Lawrence residents at a meet-and-greet at the Carnegie Building on May 20, 2026.

Story updated at 8:51 a.m. Tuesday, June 9:

After more than two weeks of waiting, city commissioners have announced that Majed Al-Ghafry will be Lawrence’s new city manager.

The commission voted 5-0 to approve Al-Ghafry’s contract, which includes an annual base salary of $330,491.20, in a special meeting on Tuesday morning. The hire comes more than three weeks after the city announced its group of five finalists, more than two weeks after the City Commission first voted to begin negotiations, and a little over a month since former City Manager Craig Owens left his position.

Al-Ghafry, currently the city manager of DeSoto, Texas, is supposed to start work in Lawrence within the next 60 days, although he said he was “looking forward to starting hopefully sooner.”

“I’m very honored and privileged,” he told the commission via a video call on Tuesday.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Majed Al-Ghafry speaks with the Lawrence City Commission via video call on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, after being announced as Lawrence’s new city manager.

All three commissioners who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting — Mayor Brad Finkeldei, Vice Mayor Mike Courtney and Commissioner Kristine Polian — said Al-Ghafry stood out to them from the group of finalists. Finkeldei said he was the commission’s top choice, and Courtney said that even in the early stages of paring down the 60-person applicant pool, Al-Ghafry was “my number-one pick.”

“We are obviously excited about this hire,” Finkeldei said, noting Al-Ghafry’s “experience in public works, economic development and large, complex projects in multiple cities.”

Al-Ghafry’s current city of DeSoto is a suburb of Dallas with a population of around 57,000 people. But before that, he was the assistant city manager and chief economic development officer for Dallas, and he has also served as the director of public works for the City of Las Vegas and worked in various city leadership roles in El Cajon, California, San Antonio, Texas, and Lemon Grove, Calif.

Multiple city commissioners said his experience working on projects in a bigger city stood out to them.

“I was looking for someone who had city manager experience with large municipalities,” Courtney said. He called Al-Ghafry “a fantastic manager” and said he had “hands-on experience” in the technical details of how to run a city.

In addition to his city administration experience, Al-Ghafry has a background in civil engineering and public works. He holds a master’s in public administration from the University of North Texas and a civil engineering degree from Northeastern University, and he has taught as an adjunct professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington.

“Majed is an engineer with experience in large public infrastructure projects and the funding thereof,” Finkeldei said. He said that the city had several big projects coming up where Al-Ghafry’s experience would be an asset, including the redevelopment of the Riverfront property and large annexations.

Courtney said that the top priority he’d heard from the community during the search was to “find a leader who will help us tackle our long-term debt,” and he thought that would be a priority for Al-Ghafry, too.

“His No. 1 goal for the first year is to help stabilize our long-term finances,” Courtney said.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Lawrence city manager candidate Majed Al-Ghafry speaks with members of the public on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at the Carnegie Building.

During Al-Ghafry’s visit to Lawrence in May, the community had an opportunity to meet him and other finalists and ask them questions at the Carnegie Building. Al-Ghafry said that beyond just a meet-and-greet, “it was a great grilling session,” and he appreciated the community’s questions — he even had a group of people still asking him questions after the meet-and-greet had wrapped up.

“I really enjoyed that process, and I knew then that I wanted to be a member of this community,” he said.

Finkeldei said that because of Al-Ghafry’s experience, his contract has him near the top of the pay scale for the position. The contract also states that the City Commission will be conducting a performance evaluation 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 Al-Ghafry leaves the position within two years, he will have to repay part of the moving expense reimbursement.)

If Al-Ghafry 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.

The commission also had a few things to say on Tuesday about the search itself, which was conducted with consulting firm Strategic Government Resources. Finkeldei noted that of the 60 applicants from 23 states, none of them were internal candidates, and Polian said that from her past experience in other municipal governments, it’s rare to find a manager candidate from within the community.

Polian also wanted to address concerns she’d heard about diversity, including the fact that there were no female finalists. “Please look into the demographics of the profession,” she urged the community. “It’s getting better, but it is predominantly a male profession,” and one in which people of color also “have a tough time.”

She said she was “100% in favor” of hiring Al-Ghafry: “Having been a part of these searches in the past, I have never been more confident in a candidate and matching them to a city’s need (than) today.”

Al-Ghafry will be arriving at a busy time for city government. He’ll be starting work in the middle of the city’s budget season, and the commission has said one of the next manager’s biggest tasks will be to lead the development of the city’s next strategic plan.

On Tuesday, he said he plans to “hit the ground running.”

“I’m looking forward to being part of the Lawrence fabric,” Al-Ghafry said, “which I hear is absolutely amazing.”