After receiving recommendations from interview panels that screened candidates for two key City of Yakima leadership positions, finalist interviews for Assistant City Manager and Director of Finance and Budget will take place on Friday, September 22nd.
Ana Cortez, Stephen Daly, and Michael Morales were selected as finalists from an initial pool of more than 60 Assistant City Manager applicants. The City has historically had an Assistant City Manager, but the position has been unfilled since 2012. After some reorganization of senior management leadership over the past year, including cost-cutting measures, the Assistant City Manager position has been reinstated.
The Director of Budget and Finance position has been vacant since longtime City employee Cindy Epperson retired from it in February of this year. Danny Agsalog and Tara Lewis, who has been serving as the City’s Interim Director of Budget and Finance since Epperson retired, and are the two finalists vying to fill the position.
The Assistant City Manager finalists will be interviewed on September 22nd by City Manager Cliff Moore as well as a panel of City senior management staff. Lewis and Agsalog will be interviewed that same day by Moore and a panel of Finance Department staff.
Moore expects to announce who will fill the two positions sometime in early October after making offers to the selected candidates and completing reference and background checks.
Cortez has worked in several capacities in local government since the mid-1990s including as a Special Assistant to former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, as the Public Services Director for the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Community Development, and as the City of Richmond, California’s Community Development Manager. Since 2015, Cortez has served as the City of West Sacramento, California’s Public Works Business Manager.
Daly began his local government career in 1975 as an Administrative Assistant to the Board of Selectmen in Rowley, Massachusetts. He has served as Town Administrator for two towns in Massachusetts and as Town Manager for two towns in New Hampshire. Daly is currently a Senior Consultant for Municipal Resources, Inc. in Meredith, New Hampshire.
Morales previously worked for the City of Yakima from 1997 to 2012, serving in several capacities including as a grants writer, Economic Development and Community Affairs Specialist, Director of Community and Economic Development, Assistant City Manager, and Interim City Manager. Since leaving the City, Morales worked in the non-profit sector and as the Community Development Director for the City of Federal Way. He is currently serving as the City of Pasco’s Economic Development & Strategic Initiatives Manager.
Agsalog, a U.S. Air Force veteran, has served in several finance-related capacities in both the public and private sectors including as the CEO of a research firm in the Philippines and Budget Director for the County of Maui, Hawaii. Agsalog currently serves as the Director of Finance for the County of Maui.
Lewis began her career as a Senior Staff Accountant with the Yakima-based Smith, Fisher and Associates firm. She then served in several finance-related capacities in the healthcare, faith-based, and higher education sectors before being hired by the City in 2010 as a Financial Services Officer. Lewis was promoted to the position of City of Yakima Financial Services Manager in 2012.
Finalist Interviews for Senior Management Positions – News Release