The top five

PRINCETON — A field of 63 candidates for the Princeton city manager position has been narrowed down to the top five.

On Monday, Princeton Mayor Keith Cain said the city council met in closed session Friday with consultants from the Voorhies Associates LLC search firm to review the applications of the top 10 city manager candidates, as screened by Voorhies from the original field of 63 applicants.

The 10 candidates were from all over the United States with the majority of the top five candidates coming either from Illinois or having worked previously in Illinois. The top five candidates range in age from their early 30s to their mid-50s, Cain estimated.

The final selection of the top five candidates was a unanimous one by the council, the mayor said.

The next step is to bring the top five candidates to Princeton on Thursday and Friday for in-person interviews with the city council. Hopefully Princeton’s new city manager will be chosen by the end of the week, hired, and in place within a month, the mayor said.

When selecting the top five candidates, Cain said he looked at several criteria, including the candidates’ past experience as a city manager or related field, how they handled their communities, and their fiscally conservative and responsible values. He said he was very pleased with the caliber of candidates as shown through their applications.

In his opinion, Cain said Princeton definitely needs a city manager to watch the day-to-day operations of the city. A city manager also brings fresh ideas to the city and is there to work on grants and other cost-savings measures. No one tries to run a business with part-time people, he said.

When former city manager Jeff Fiegenschuh left the position in November 2011, Cain assumed the position of acting city manager. With the city’s capable department heads and city officials, Cain has said he was confident the city would be able to handle the business of the city until a full-time city manager is hired.

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