3 finalists selected for open Springfield City Manager position

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (Edited News Release/KY3) - The Springfield City Council announced three finalists for the position of city manager of Springfield.

David Cameron, current City Administrator in Republic, Missouri
Bob Cowell, who most recently served as the City Manager in Roanoke, Virginia
Brian Weiler, the current city of Springfield Director of Aviation

The three will participate in a series of engagements in Springfield from April 15 to 16 before the city council makes a final selection.

Meet the Candidates

Tuesday, April 15

6:30 p.m. - David Cameron Virtual Town Hall Meeting
7 p.m. – Bob Cowell Virtual Town Hall Meeting
7:30 p.m. – Brian Weiler Virtual Town Hall Meeting

Each candidate will meet and interview with citizen stakeholder groups, newly elected officials Jeff Schrag and Bruce Adib-Yazdi, city leadership team members, city employees, and news media. Engagements will include 30-minute live virtual town hall meetings with each candidate starting at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 15, airing on Cityview.springfieldmo.gov and the city’s Facebook page, CityofSGF, and a final interview round with the city council.

Citizens may submit their questions for the candidates ahead of time for the virtual town hall meetings here until 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 15, or in real time by commenting on the livestream at Cityview.springfieldmo.gov or on the City’s Facebook page during the broadcast.

Wednesday, April 16

7:15 a.m.-9 a.m. - Community Stakeholder Breakfast at The Old Glass Place

A wide variety of community stakeholders and representatives from community groups are invited to meet finalists, including, but not limited to: City boards and commissions, Neighborhood Advisory Council, Greene County Commission, Have Faith Initiative, Missouri legislative delegation, The Network Executive Committee, NAACP, Rosie, Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and Springfield Public Schools Board.

Meetings with City of Springfield employees and final interviews with the city council will follow.

About the candidates

David Cameron

David Cameron has served as City Administrator for the City of Republic since July 2016. He is a native of Miller, having returned to the area after spending 16 years with the City of Siloam Springs, Arkansas where he served in the same capacity. He earned his bachelor’s degree in organizational management from John Brown University in Siloam Springs.

He has devoted his career to local government, addressing process improvements, bridging relationships between government and the development community, infrastructure deployment, economic development, and environmental compliance. Under his leadership, Republic has delivered $1.4 billion in capital investments, created 3,000 new jobs, and led the development of significant projects. The City of Republic has 170 employees and a population 18,750 as of the 2020 census. The annual budget is $48 million.

Bob Cowell

Bob Cowell has spent 30 years in public service, most recently serving as the City Manager of Roanoke, Virginia from 2017-2024. He previously served as Deputy City Manager in Amarillo, Texas. Born and raised in Missouri, Cowell began his career as a planner and served in numerous communities such as Jefferson County, Missouri, Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Bloomington, Indiana.

While director of planning and development in College Station Texas, Cowell planned the city’s “Biocorridor” with Texas A&M University, a research and development hub for vaccines similar to but much larger than Roanoke’s joint innovation district project with Carilion Clinic and Virginia Tech. Cowell has a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Tennessee and bachelor’s degree in aeronautics from St. Louis University.

The city of Roanoke has about 1,800 employees and an annual budget of about $282 million, serving a city of 97,000.

Brian Weiler

Brian Weiler, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, has served as the Director of Aviation at the Springfield-Branson National Airport since 2011. Previously, he worked for the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) for 15 years. Before MoDOT, Weiler managed airports in Johnson County, Kansas, St. Joseph, and Martin County, Florida. Weiler has held progressively higher professional leadership roles in state, county, and city governments for over 30 years and is a city of Springfield’s Leadership Team member. Accomplishments include negotiating with American Airlines to finance and construct a new maintenance base at Springfield’s airport, partnering with Ozarks Tech to start a flight school that tripled in its first five years and transforming an unprofitable 100,000-square-foot former airline terminal into a significant non-aeronautical revenue source and regional economic asset with 100% occupancy and over 1,000 employees.

Weiler has a master of science degree in aviation safety from the University of Central Missouri and a bachelor of science in professional aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.The Springfield-Branson National Airport serves over 1.4 million passengers annually, with four airlines to 14 destinations. It has 2,000 employees and an annual budget of $22.15 million.

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