The Austin City Council is moving forward with its city administrator search.

The council unanimously voted during its work session Monday night to hire Pat McGarvey, a former Austin city administrator, to help the city conduct its candidate search.

According to a report by Human Resources Director Tricia Wiechmann, six out of the seven city department heads hoped the city would move forward on finding a new city administrator this year, before upcoming elections would potentially replace council members with someone who didn’t understand the situation.

Wiechmann wrote the city needs to have a “strong administrator who can handle day-to-day decisions, make recommendations and provide direction.”

Tom Dankert, the city’s finance director, had taken over city administrator duties over the past few months but had repeatedly signaled he wanted to remain the finance director and urged the council earlier this year to seek out a new city administrator in the long term.

Council Member Jeff Austin argued the city should try to rewrite Dankert’s job position to allow him to become city administrator and keep control of finances, but the council moved forward with a new city administrator search.

Mayor Tom Stiehm said the new administrator was necessary to ensure the city continued to operate.

“In order to reassure the citizens, I think it’s necessary to start moving forward,” he said.

Austin has been without a city administrator since the council fired former city head Jim Hurm in December after a job evaluation found department heads believed Hurm wasn’t doing a good job. The council decided last month to temporarily pause its search to fill the vacant city administrator position earlier this year after city staff said they could operate as-is on a short-term basis.

McGarvey is a former city administrator who left Austin in 2003. He has worked with other cities like Albert Lea and Mason City, Iowa, in similar searches to find city administrators. Council members said McGarvey appeared to be open to helping the city, but they hadn’t yet made a formal offer to McGarvey.