COUNCIL PICKS CITY MANAGER FINALISTS

The City Council Monday night narrowed its search for a city manager to five finalists and three alternates.

The alternates will be considered if one or more of the finalists withdraw from the field.

All eight are men and all have been or currently are city managers. "All these people have somewhere between 15 to 20 years of experience," Mayor Al Spradling III said.

The seven-member council narrowed the field during an hour-and-a-half closed-door meeting at City Hall. City Manager J. Ronald Fischer is retiring July 27. Assistant City Manager Doug Leslie is expected to serve as interim manager until a new city manager comes on board.

Spradling said the eight applicants are from across the nation. None is from this area.

Spradling said the names of the five finalists will be released after they are contacted by the city staff to see if they are still interested in the job.

The finalists and alternates were unanimous choices of the council. The council recently had narrowed the field of applicants from 88 to 13.

Spradling said the council worked off the list of 13 in making its decisions Monday night.

The council plans to bring in the finalists one by one to tour the city, visit with city staff and the council, and speak to reporters.

Spradling said the visits will be done between the last week of July and mid-August. The council hopes to decide on a city manager by Aug. 15.