Friday, April 4, 2003
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Friday, April 4, 2003 |
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Council may choose from just three candidates for city manager By J. FRANK LYNCH
The names of the three finalists to fill the city manager job in Peachtree City could be made public this week. The City Council interviewed just three of seven hand-selected applicants in first-round interviews last weekend at City Hall. Four others from the original field of seven pulled out of consideration before the interview date was set. Mayor Steve Brown said the council intended to consider all seven applicants and then whittle those down to three finalists to announce to the public. He admitted his favorite of the seven, on paper anyway, was one of those who withdrew. But as it turns out, Brown said he and others on the council were generally impressed with the remaining three hopefuls and there may not be a need to interview additional applicants. "I was very happy with the way it went," he said. "If we think we don't need to do any more interviews, then those three will be announced shortly." Councilwoman Annie McMenamin agreed. "If we got in there and didn't feel good about any of them, we would advertise for more applicants," she said. "(The applicants) had a good balance of skills. And we're trying to get someone who can do just about everything." Brown said the four who removed themselves from consideration didn't do so because of any negative perception of the job or the city. Two accepted positions with other municipalities, another cited personal reasons and the fourth decided to stay at a present job, Brown said. The new city manager will replace longtime adminstrator Jim Basinger, who resigned in September when the council did not renew his contract. Colin Halterman has been acting manager in the interim. "Colin has done an excellent job, but we are in desperate need to get somebody in there fulltime," said McMenamin. City Attorney Ted Meeker said Open Records law requires that the council announce the names of the three finalists at least 14 days before awarding the position.
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