By: Brian Wells | Roseville-Eastpointe Eastsider | Published October 26, 2025
EASTPOINTE — After several months of searching, the Eastpointe City Council has extended a job offer to a potential city manager.
Jaymes Vettraino, from Vettraino Consulting LLC, whom the city hired to conduct the search, said they received 39 applications for the position, which the City Council narrowed down to four. The candidates had the opportunity to meet with both the public and city department heads before being interviewed by the council Oct. 4.
At the City Council’s Oct. 7 meeting, the council members narrowed it down to two candidates — Brian Wood and Ryan Madis, with Wood being the council’s first pick.
Brian Wood is currently serving as the assistant city manager of Glenarden, Maryland. Madis is the current economic development program manager in Flint.
Madis — who was the first pick for Mayor Michael Klinefelt and City Councilman Harvey Curley — was the second pick for the rest of the Council except Cardi Demonaco Jr., who said he preferred Jason Smith, Belleville’s city manager, as his second pick.
While the rest of the Council agreed Madis had positive qualities, they chose Wood as their first pick.
“He seemed to have a good understanding of the role,” Councilman Rob Baker said. “One thing that really stood out to me was his community engagement, his willingness to have his boots on the ground and be involved and understand what’s going on in the community and taking into account the stakeholders while serving the community, and just for lack of a better way of saying it, not just from behind a desk.”
Councilwoman Margaret Podsiadlik said both candidates had good qualities, but she agreed with Baker.
“As Council member Baker had stated, community involvement, I thought that’s someone we could really use here,” she said.
Wood was Klinefelt’s second pick, and he said it was a close decision between the two.
While Madis was his first pick, Curley said he respected the candidates and respected the decision of the other council members.
“We all read the same material; we all heard their presentations. We’re all, I think, being pretty smart about these things, because we’ve done it so many times,” he said.
To be selected, a candidate would need a minimum of three votes. City Council voted unanimously to extend an offer to Wood. In a second motion, they council voted unanimously again to keep Madis as an alternate choice.
In the event that Wood declined the city’s offer, an offer would be extended to Madis.
In an Oct. 17 interview, City Attorney Rich Albright said he had drafted an agreement and sent it to Wood, who had accepted the offer.
“Now he and I are in contract negotiations. I have prepared a proposed employment agreement, and I did forward that to him, and he’s had an opportunity to look at it, and he has some additional conditions that he would like to see in that appointment agreement,” Albright said.
While the contract was based heavily on former City Manager Mariah Walton’s contract, Klinefelt said he wanted to incentivize the candidate to be able to purchase a home in Eastpointe.
Living in the city was part of Walton’s contract; however, she was unable to take advantage of that, Klinefelt said.
“I believe both these candidates would be relocating, so I’d like to really try to negotiate the terms to make them choose to purchase a home in Eastpointe if they move,” he said. “That’s something that’s really important to me.”
Curley said he was excited to have a city manager move into the city.
“I’m really excited that he wants to move into our community,” Curley said. “The last city manager that did that was Wes McAllister, if there is anybody in the audience old enough to remember Wes McAllister. And he showed himself. All the shop people knew him, the people who gave haircuts knew him, and he knew everybody else.”
Additionally, because either candidate would have to relocate, City Council asked Albright to make the contract for three years instead of two.
“We want to see dedication and commitment from both sides,” Baker said.
A closed session was held to discuss the agreement at the City Council’s Oct. 21 meeting. Albright said that, following the meeting, council was still discussing the employment agreement but had scheduled a special meeting to discuss it.
The meeting is scheduled for Oct. 27.