Twentynine Palms City Council appoints a new City Manager

In 2024 the selection process to appoint a new City Manager was brought down to two candidates and Stone James was ultimately chosen to fill the position. Kevin Cole was the second of the two candidates. On April 9, 2026 Stone James resigned from his City Manager position and rather than begin a whole new recruitment process, Kevin Cole was approached to ascertain if he was still interested in the position.

A subcommittee was formed composed of Mayor Daniel Mintz and Councilmember Steven Bilderain in order to negotiate an employment agreement with Cole. Currently, Cole is employed by Copper Mountain Community College District and plans to conclude that employment as of May 15th 2026, to begin as City Manager directly thereafter. The new City Manager’s base pay will be $186,000 annually.

Here Mayor Mintz describes the process by which Kevin Cole was selected to be the new Twentynine Palms City Manager:

“All five of us interviewed Kevin and it was recommended that we offer him a contract. Kevin is an excellent candidate for the City Manager position. While he was with the city, he was responsible for a lot of important projects. He worked directly with the City Manager several times and then he also applied technical expertise for local infrastructure and obviously he was a recreational supervisor and a project manager. After the city interview, we all agreed that we have a great choice for the city manager, voted 5-0 and offered him the job subject to working out an employment agreement we could all agree on, which was approved at open session tonight.”

Meeting attendees expressed their approval for Kevin Cole’s appointment to Twentynine Palms City Manager. Many also expressed their appreciation for outgoing City Manager Dr. Stone James.