AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin Mayor Kirk Watson announced to city council members Monday that he’s beginning the search process for a permanent city manager roughly four months after the council parted ways with Spencer Cronk.

“As I promised, I am taking the steps to begin the search process for a permanent city manager. I committed that we would start in the June/July timeframe,” Watson wrote in a post on the city’s message board.

Watson announced that he had tapped several council members to serve on a committee to help with the initial stages of the process including narrowing down search firms to complete the search.

Those council members are Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis and Council Members Leslie Pool, Chito Vela and Vanessa Fuentes.

The mayor said he was nearly done with a request for proposal (RFP) that the committee would view before being put out to possible search firms. That will go out by the end of June or early July, the mayor said.

“The goal will be for the committee to narrow the field to a few search firms that will then be brought to the full council for review and selection. I hope we accomplish the selection of a firm in the July-August time frame and the firm can begin its work,” Watson wrote.