UPDATE: City Council unanimously appoints Cary Westin as interim City Manager.

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – El Paso City Council members are set to discuss several items regarding the appointment of an interim city manager and the process for doing so at next week’s city council meeting.

According to the City Council agenda for the March 14 session, Mayor Oscar Leeser authored an agenda item to discuss and take action regarding the procedure for appointment of Cary Westin as Interim City Manager, effective June 30.

Cary Westin currently works for the city on a part-time basis as a senior operations officer and is a retired Army Colonel.

Cary Westin

The agenda item states it is necessary to appoint an interim city manager in order to ensure the continuity of operations for the City of El Paso after City Manager Tommy Gonzalez’s last day on June 29, 2023.

As KTSM previously reported, a divided El Paso City Council voted 5-4 on Feb. 28, with Mayor Oscar Leeser casting the tie-breaking vote, to terminate City Manager Tommy Gonzalez’s contract.

That decision provided notice to Gonzalez that they are terminating his contract in 120 days without cause.

If council approves Westin’s appointment, he will return to the City of El Paso on a full-time basis, where his role will be to assist and support Gonzalez during the next several months in order to prepare to assume the position on June 30.

On a separate agenda item, council members are also set to discuss and take action to establish a defined process for selecting both an interim and permanent city manager.

This agenda item focuses on creating a process that will include formal input from members of council and the mayor when making these decisions.

That agenda item was placed by representatives Chris Canales, Cassandra Hernandez and Henry Rivera.

Westin joined The City of El Paso in January, 2014 following three years with the Borderplex Alliance and the El Paso Regional Economic Development Corporation as Vice President of Business Development for the Defense and Clean Technology sectors, responsible for attracting new industry to the region.

Prior to that he worked for Aerospace Missions Corporation as Vice President for Business Development, supporting key technology research and development projects including hyper-spectral imaging for small unmanned aerial platforms, Nano-photonics, and the development of miniaturized sensors.

Westin served 25 years on active duty in the Army in a variety of critical command and staff positions.