By Jessica Mathews/News@whmi.com


After a marathon interview session via a video tele-conference meeting, the Howell City Council has selected the city manager candidate they’re hoping will agree to help lead the city into the future.

Mayor and council held an almost ten hour session performing interviews for four candidates before selecting Paul DeBuff as the top choice. There were originally five candidates but one dropped out a few days ago. Paul DeBuff is the current Director of Administrative Services and Assistant to the City Manager in the City of Celina, Texas. Prior to that, he served as the senior budget analyst for the Town of Addison, Texas. DeBuff is also a certified Government Finance Officer and brings six and a half years of municipal experience.

Interim Howell City Manager Erv Suida says the interviews went very well - everyone held strong together and were able to make it through all the questions before selecting DeBuff as the candidate they want to extend an offer to. Suida says council was very pleased with the caliber of the candidates and how well everyone did during the interview process, adding they were all very strong in their own ways but DeBuff was the clear choice.

When asked if there were any concerns about him being from out of state, Suida replied that’s always a concern but Council is confident. He says they’ve been assured his interest is to move here and he is absolutely interested in coming to Howell. Suida says they’ll know more as they progress through it but really the biggest concern is how to move forward in today’s world with some of the travel restrictions and other restrictions. He says if they can reach an agreement, there’s a lot of work to be done as far as housing, moving and getting him here not knowing how the COVID-19 issue is going to play out or how long it will last. Suida says that’s probably more so of a concern than for him to be coming from Texas.

Suida says Council authorized the mayor and city attorney to reach out to DeBuff and see if they can come to terms on an agreement that would be brought back to Council for approval. Photo: Linked in.