Nine people are still in the running to be Emporia’s next city manager, Mayor Jim Kessler said Wednesday.
The names of the nine have not been released. City commissioners narrowed the field from 47 candidates after a long closed-door meeting with consultant Chuck Anderson on Wednesday morning.
“It’s going to be hard,” Kessler said. “We have nine quality candidates. Almost all of them have a broad range of city and/or county managerial experiences.”
All nine will be interviewed by Anderson. By early February, Anderson will recommend four to six finalists, who will be publicly announced and brought to Emporia for on-site interviews. That means that, if everything goes well, a new city manager could be in place by the end of February.
Of the nine, Kessler said, eight are currently in local government while the ninth comes from a non-profit agency.
“There were several candidates from the private sector that were very interesting,” Kessler said. “But we thought it important that we have some experience.”
About half of the candidates are from Kansas, Kessler said.