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After an hour-long closed door session Thursday evening, the Berkeley City Council emerged to announce they had picked Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz as the interim replacement for retiring City Manager Weldon Rucker. 

The appointment begins Nov. 1, and will be re-evaluated on May 1, with preliminary indications that the permanent City Manager’s position is Kalmarz’ unless either he doesn’t want it or Council changes its mind.  

Councilmember Betty Olds said there are no current plans by Council to search for another applicant, and Mayor Tom Bates had said earlier that the six-month interim period was designed to see if Kalmarz and Council were “happy with each other” on a permanent basis. 

Kamlarz is a 27-year veteran of Berkeley city government. He has served 10 years as assistant City Manager, six years as Deputy City Manager, and a brief period this year as interim director of the city’s Planning Department.