Salem city councilors on Monday unanimously authorized a performance evaluation of Interim City Manager Krishna Namburi, setting the stage for hiring her permanently into the job she’s held for five months.

The council also voted unanimously to expand the evaluation to include feedback from members of the city’s executive leadership team which includes city department heads, the police chief and the fire chief.

Council President Linda Nishioka said that while she couldn’t speak for her colleagues or on behalf of the council as a whole, she herself said she hopes to see Namburi get the chance to continue on as city manager.

She said appointing Namburi would save the city a lot of time and probably money.

“For me, all I can say is I feel she (Namburi) deserves further time. I believe t

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