SAFFORD — This Friday, three men will make their cases to be the one selected to be the new Safford City Manager.
Eric Bejarano, Peter Jankowski and Anthony Kozlowski are the three finalists for the Safford city manager position, and each will interview with the City Council in closed executive session on Friday, May 8.
Pending the interviews, the council is tentatively scheduled to take action on the hiring of a permanent city manager at its May 18 regular meeting.
Jankowski has extensive experience as a town manager or administrator, with his first service in Milbridge, Maine, starting in 1997, and followed by stints as a manager in: Gray, Maine; Athol, Mass.; Kittery, Maine; Dudley, Mass.; Cave Creek, Ariz.; Freetown, Mass.; Mesquite, Nev.; and,, most recently, Surfside, Fla., from Aug.-Dec. 2024.
Kozlowski has worked for Lake Havasu City for six years, the past two years as assistant city manager and the previous four years as assistant to the city manager. He also worked for 2.5 years with Bullhead City, as assistant to the city manager and as an administrative analyst; and he worked in non-manager positions for San Diego County, the City of Coolidge and the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.
Bejarano was hired as the assistant city manager for Safford in 2024, and is performing the duties of interim city manager following the termination of the previous city manager last December.
Prior to joining Safford, Bejarano was the director of the Small Business Development Center at Eastern Arizona College, the area manager for Air Methods air ambulance service, and was a Tucson Police officer.
