Eugene City Councilors Mike Clark, Jennifer Yeh and Matt Keating left to right. (Mathias Lehman-Winters/Emerald)
The search for Eugene’s new city manager continues as the city council prepares to choose a candidate in the coming days. This week, candidates will be meeting partnering businesses and institutions, as well as private interviews with the council. A public interview was held today in the City Council Chamber.
Through a recruitment firm, the council has been searching for candidates for the position since December. First-round interviews began at the end of the month. The position has been open since former city manager Sarah Medary’s retirement in December.
The city manager is the chief executive of the city, developing work plans and overseeing multiple departments. They collaborate with the city council to create priority goals, recommend policies, implement decisions and report financial updates.
The city council announced the three finalists on Jan. 6, revealing the top candidates as Lake Oswego city manager Martha Bennett, Beaverton city manager Jenny Haruyama and current Eugene city manager pro tem Matt Rodrigues.
The public interview lasted for four hours, and was open for the public to watch in person or online. Each councillor asked the same prepared question to the candidates in order of ward number.
Each candidate spent their interview time addressing questions on local funding, federal oversight, environmental protections, homelessness, the future of Automated License Plate Readers and other subjects.
Councilor Matt Keating of Ward Two asked the candidates how they would balance the desires of the Eugene community and council with the federal government’s policies when they may conflict.
“Our role (in immigration) is to make sure we are meeting state law — Oregon sanctuary laws — and that we are not participating in that enforcement in any way,” Rodrigues said in response, addressing concerns in the community surrounding immigration enforcement. “And one of our roles… is to best understand how we can support our community at large, especially when you have a community that is feeling fear about the way federal law is being currently enforced.”
“We’ve (Beaverton) had a number of experiences in losing federal funding as a result of either language that we’ve used in contracts or on our websites,” Haruyama said. “We’ve been creative in trying to navigate some of the verbiage that we use, but what we have done is be pretty strategic when those things occur.”
Haruyama emphasized collaboration with the governor and state representatives to create policy frameworks that can keep projects funded. Bennett echoed a similar strategy.
“I would collaborate with you, with our city attorney, with our congresspeople, because I will say I think those folks may be the heart of how we tackle the stuff we’re facing right now,” Bennett said. “That’s a priority for this community in the face of an attack on the ideas that underpin that work.”
The city council will hold a special meeting tomorrow to discuss the next steps in the process of choosing one of the three candidates to fill the city manager position.
Bennett is a graduate of Willamette University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and history, as well as an alum at the University of California at Berkeley with a Master’s of Public Policy from their Graduate School of Public Policy. Her father was a city manager in Michigan, Arizona and Oregon communities.
The second-generation city manager has over 25 years of experience with local governance. She previously worked in the city of Milwaukie as an assistant city manager, in Ashland as a city administrator and as the Chief Operating Officer of Metro in Portland.
Bennett was the consensus pick for the city manager position by the Lake Oswego’s city council and deciding staff in 2019. In the six years since her appointment Bennett has overseen the city’s $225 million budget, as well as the operations of each city department.
Haruyama graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and has a Master’s of Public Administration from California State University Hayward.
She has over 25 years of experience in city government, working as the Assistant City Manager of Livermore, California and as the City Manager of Scotts Valley, California and Tracy, California.
Haruyama became Beaverton’s city manager in 2021 during the Beaverton Charter Change, when voters moved to change Beaverton’s government city from mayor-focused to council-mayor oriented, similar to Eugene’s form of government, where the city manager works as the administrative head. Haruyama led the transition in government during her first year in office.
In Beaverton, Haruyama oversaw and operated a $500 million budget. Her mission as the city manager of Beaverton emphasized the importance of protecting small businesses and enhancing affordable housing.
The final contender is the current city manager pro tem, who graduated from Santa Clara University with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering.
Rodrigues began working with the city of Eugene in 2004, where he worked in public works engineering and later was appointed to be the Public Works Director in 2021. Rodrigues became the Assistant City Manager in 2023, where he has worked alongside former city manager Medary.
Eugene Mayor Kaarin Knudson announced Rodrigues as the interim city manager in November of 2025, temporarily filling the position when Medary retired in December.
