The City Council voted 9-0 tonight to begin negotiations with Eric Anderson for the position of Tacoma’s next City Manager. Anderson, the current city manager in Des Moines, Iowa, was selected from an original field of 41 applicants and a select field of three finalists who interviewed with the Council last week.

“We spent all day Friday with the candidates, and I feel really good now to take this to the next step,” said Council Member and Chair of the City Manager’s Performance Appraisal Committee Spiro Manthou during the announcement that Anderson had been selected.

“This is one more step, but not the final step, in the process of moving toward a new City Manager,” said Mayor Bill Baarsma. “We can now begin negotiations.”

Anderson has been the city manager in Des Moines, Iowa, since 1995, and before that he was the city manager in Evanston, Ill., from 1991 through 1995, and in Eau Claire, Wis., from 1984 through 1991. During his tenure in Des Moines, Anderson has served as a policy advisor to the city council, and he has prepared the operating and capital improvements budgets for council approval. Des Moines has a population of 200,000 and a government staff of approximately 2,007 people.