Novi promotes Cardenas to be permanent city manager

NOVI — After a six-month, nationwide search and a lengthy executive session, the Novi City Council voted unanimously June 5 to offer the city manager position to Victor Cardenas, who had been serving as the interim city manager.

“In those years where we have to pick a new city manager, that becomes the most important and the most arduous task for the City Council, because the city manager is the one who runs the city on a day-to-day basis,” Mayor Bob Gatt said at the June 5 meeting. “The city manager is in charge of budget, the city manager is in charge of personnel, the city manager is in charge of making the city go.”

According to Gatt, the city’s search firm, Slavin, presented the council with a packet containing the resumes of 12 candidates during the first week of June. Gatt said Cardenas stood out from the rest as the person best qualified to run the city of Novi.

“I think it would be unfair to ask people to come in a public session and interview if, in my conscience, I didn’t think they could rise to the level of Victor,” said Councilman Justin Fischer.

“It’s no secret that he should have stood out, because he’s been with us for over a decade. He’s worked here. He’s worked through ups and downs in the economy. He knows the people. He knows the employees. He knows the public. He knows the businesses. He’s involved in everything from A to Z in the city of Novi,” said Gatt.

Cardenas grew up in St. Clair Shores and attended  South Lake High School in 1995. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Grand Valley State University and a master’s from Indiana University. He had held the position of assistant city manager since 2010 and had twice been named the interim city manager — in 2014 and now in 2022-23. He got his start in Oak Park as an assistant to the city manager and later worked as village manager in Brooklyn, Michigan, before coming to Novi.

“I definitely bring the continuity and historical perspective of where we’ve been for the past 12-plus years,” said Cardenas.

He said he plans to provide the necessary support and continue the goals and objectives of the City Council, while providing the best service possible to Novi residents. Cardenas said he believes the city stands out because of its rich diversity, plus its school system and city services.

“Novi has always been a trend leader in my field of city management,” said Cardenas.

Councilwoman Ericka Thomas said it makes sense to hire someone who is already in Novi and part of the community.

“He is a known quantity. He is well respected in the community and heavily invested in our community. He is an excellent candidate,” Thomas said.

According to Cardenas, the biggest issue for the city right now is personnel. He said the city needs to make sure it has people to fill all the positions and roles available in the community. He said that the days when there were hundreds of candidates for a job are over, and now the candidate pool is a lot smaller. He said he will look at finding people to fill different positions in finance and public safety, public works and parks.

“It’s a lot harder than it used to be. Not sure if it is a result of the pandemic or something else,” said Cardenas. “So it’s just making sure that we have the right people in the right seats of the bus.”

Mayor Pro Tem David Staudt said that he has worked with Cardenas for  many years now and has watched him grow into the position. He said he saw Cardenas work under two city managers and function as interim city manager twice. He credited Cardenas’ work under the prior city manager, Pete Auger, with having taught Cardenas “everything he knows about economic development.” Staudt said that in serving on committees with Cardenas he learned that Cardenas is always attentive, thoughtful and interested in coming up with the best solution for the city.

“I think the transformation has been very noticeable to all of us in that he is clearly ready to go,” said Staudt. “I think as having someone for your city manager who is always looking for the best solution for your city, you can’t do any better than that.”

Cardenas said he was blessed to have had two “very great city managers” to learn from and “pick their brains.” He said the one lesson he has learned over the years and would stress to others is to never take yourself too seriously, and no one person is more important than another.

“By no means am I the important person in the room. Everyone can be and is the leader in our organization. So we value everyone’s ideas in how we can solve a problem,” said Cardenas.

Cardeanas said he has wanted to go into city management since he did an internship with his mentor, Mark Wollenweber, while Cardenas was attending Grand Valley State University. Cardenas said he had previously aspired to go into government, possibly at the state or federal levels, but after completing his internship and seeing the fruits of his labor, he decided he wanted to go into municipal government.

“I’ve said from the very beginning that unless a superstar came to town, Victor Cardenas would be my choice for city manager. I’ve told people I looked at him as the heavyweight champ, and you really have to bring something to beat the heavyweight champ. Even if you are on par with him, you still don’t beat the champ, and as far as I’m concerned, Victor was and is the champ,” Councilman Hugh Crawford said.

“Victor was head and shoulders the best candidate,” Councilman Brian Smith said. “I knew he was a good person to work with, I just didn’t realize how good.”

“When we started this process, we all knew that we would do our due diligence and look as widely as we could to make sure that we found the right candidate that would lead our city for the next couple of decades, and I think though the process what was really clear to me was we had that candidate sitting next to us. We had that candidate in our house,” Councilwoman Laura Marie Casey said.

Cardeanas lives in the city with his wife, Kathryn, an administrator at the University of Michigan, and their three children, who attend Novi schools.