Questionnaires
Written exams
Lately, there have been required presentations and in order to be truly competitive you would probably need to have first hand knowlege as a county or city employee.
It sometimes seemed like the team tasked with doing the main portion of the interview process were interested in selling me on the job. Then after moving forward from the staff portion of the interview, if you do well, you will be asked to return to meet with council members and chief of staff. Council members were at times very engaged, but others were less interested in participating in the process.