The City of Sheboygan has selected two candidates to fill the position vacated when Todd Wolf was fired as City Administrator in January. The two finalists are Casey Bradley of Baraboo and Jesse Thyes of Grafton.
Mayor Ryan Sorenson and Common Council President Dean Dekker announced the two finalists in a release on Thursday afternoon. The two will will make their presentations to members of the city staff in two sessions on Monday afternoon, first from 1:00 until 1:20 p.m., and the second from 4 until 4:20 p.m. The presentations in the 3rd Floor Council Chambers will be closed to the public and there will be no opportunity for anyone attending to ask questions or otherwise participate. The Common Council will, however, officially meet in the first Special Common Council Meeting after the first interview, during which they will convene in a closed session to consider the candidates with breaks taken in between the two. No final decision would be announced immediately, but rather the Director of Human Resources would be given parameters to begin negotiating with a specific candidate.
Casey Bradley has been the City Administrator of Baraboo, Wisconsin since 2020. Prior to taking that position he served as Adams County, Wisconsin’s County Coordinator for three years, and before that was the Auditor and Chief Operating Officer of Stutsman County, North Dakota. He is a U.S. Air Force veteran holding two Master’s Degrees, one in public administration and the other in accounting and financial management.
Jesse Thyes has served as the Grafton, Wisconsin Village Administrator since 2016. Before that, Thyes served as Acting City Administrator and Assistant City Administrator for Mequon, and also worked for the Wisconsin Villages of Butler and Brown Deer in administrative positions. He holds an MBA from Concordia University Wisconsin.
The selection of the two finalists followed a process which drew more than 30 candidates, and was assisted by national executive recruitment firm GovHRE USA, while the Common Council and the Mayor’s selection committee narrowed the field of candidates over an earlier series of interviews.