Council selects acting City Manager Diane Carlson for permanent role

Published September 18 2024

After engaged public interview process, council will now complete employment contract

Acting City Manager Diane Carlson was unanimously selected by the City Council at its meeting Tuesday to serve as the next city manager for Bellevue. Carlson has served in an acting capacity since the retirement of former city manager Brad Miyake in November 2023. The council's decision to select Carlson will be formalized once an employment contract is signed in the coming weeks.

"(The council) put a tremendous amount of thought into this decision," said Mayor Lynne Robinson during the meeting. "To be able to hire someone of Diane Carlson's caliber into a major leadership position with her historic knowledge and without having to have a transition period…is just invaluable. We have a tremendous amount of work ahead of us…I am grateful for the opportunity to hire…an already-tested talent who can hit the ground running and be working at full capacity tomorrow, and I think our city deserves that."

A Bellevue resident, Carlson has strong roots in the community and region, with a long and impressive career in public administration and government relations. From 2002 to 2012, she served as the City of Bellevue's government relations director before taking a position as the capital division director for King County Metro. She also has led regional initiatives for the Office of County Executive Dow Constantine and worked for the state Department of Transportation as director of planning, advocacy and initiatives, and for the Association of Washington Cities as senior manager for transportation. She returned to the City of Bellevue in 2022 to serve as deputy city manager before being appointed acting city manager in late 2023.

"I'm passionate about Bellevue and recognize that the role of city manager is the highest level of responsibility to serve our community and carry out this council's vision," Carlson said. "I appreciate the council's confidence in me. We have a lot of work ahead of us and I'm looking forward to it."

The council will now undertake negotiations to reach an employment contract agreement with Carlson, at which point they will vote to finalize the appointment, expected sometime this fall. The full council discussion and vote is available through meeting replay on Bellevue Television.

Bellevue operates under a council-manager form of government where the council hires a city manager to run the operations of the city and the council provides the vision, policies and priorities for the city.

As part of the process to select a new city manager, the city's human resources staff engaged an external consultant to solicit input from community members, the city's leadership team and the council. The input received was used to develop a city manager candidate profile that identified key qualities and competencies desired in a permanent city manager.

The council reviewed the profile feedback at a council meeting in May and voted to adopt the city manager profile and proceed with a transparent and community-involved interview process for current acting City Manager Diane Carlson, who was found to meet the criteria of the candidate profile.

The city enlisted the community's input again to submit interview questions for two community forums, where questions submitted by the public in August were asked of Carlson in an interview setting. In addition, the council held a special meeting where they interviewed Carlson. All three interviews were held in early September, and recordings are available on the City Manager Hiring Process page.

For alternate formats or reasonable accommodations please phone at least 48 hours in advance 425-452-6838 (voice) or email [email protected]. For complaints regarding accommodations, contact the city's ADA/Title VI administrator at 425-452-6168 (voice).