By: Brian Wells | Roseville-Eastpointe Eastsider | Published October 28, 2025 | Updated October 29, 2025 4:11pm
EASTPOINTE — The Eastpointe City Council’s first pick for a city manager withdrew his application.
On Oct. 14, the City Council voted to extend an offer to Brian Wood, the current assistant city manager in Glenarden, Maryland, to fill the city’s vacant city manager position. The City Council also voted to extend an offer to Flint Economic Program Development Manager Ryan Madis in the event that Wood declined the position.
At a special meeting held Oct. 27, the City Council voted to receive and file the letter of withdrawal from Wood and directed City Attorney Richard Albright to extend a contract to Madis.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, several people spoke out against the city’s proposed road diet on Nine Mile Road, and some criticized the City Council for not putting the special meeting on the city calendar until the morning of the meeting.
Council members Cardi DeMonaco Jr. and Margaret Podsiadlik stated that the meeting was added at the last minute due to a quick response being needed to Wood’s withdrawal.
“We’re meeting today; we’re trying to move forward,” DeMonaco said. “Candidates will maybe take an offer somewhere else if we don’t move fast enough, so we’re trying to move forward here and find a good city manager for the city.”
Councilman Rob Baker agreed, adding that he understood the residents’ concerns.
“Everybody up here, we do owe you transparency. We owe you integrity, we owe you honesty and we owe you the obligation to do the best that we can up here so your voices are being heard,” he said.
Eastpointe Mayor Michael Klinefelt said the meeting wasn’t necessary, but they wanted to be able to acknowledge what had happened with Wood.
“I don’t think today’s meeting was, I guess, legally necessary. I think our staff already had the direction, but we wanted to have a meeting to at least acknowledge what had happened to the first candidate,” he said. “Obviously, choosing the city manager is the most important thing that we do up here, so we wanted everyone to know what was going on with that.”
Albright said he planned to give Madis the same contract that he had drafted for Wood.
“Everything is identical, except the names have been changed,” he said.
According to an Oct. 23 article in The Daily News, the Belding City Council, in Belding, Michigan, also has selected Madis as its first pick for city manager.
According to the article, at an Oct. 21 meeting, Mayor Jeannine Leary said the city would not be offering a contract or hiring at the meeting, but would instead be telling the search firm hired by the city that they would be moving ahead with a candidate, leading the firm to do a deeper dive into the candidate’s background, and then potentially working on a contract.
Call Staff Writer Brian Wells at (248) 291-7637.