BAKER CITY — The Baker City Council interviewed two candidates for the city manager’s job Monday evening, Oct. 5, and councilors will interview three others Tuesday.

Both evenings of Zoom interviews were slated to happen during executive sessions, which are closed to the public.

Oregon’s public meetings law allows city councils and other elected boards to consider certain topics during executive sessions, including, as in this case, the employment of a public officer.

Councilors can’t make any decisions during executive sessions, however.

Fred Warner Jr., who has been city manager since May 2016, plans to retire at the end of the year.

A total of 14 people applied for the job. On Sept. 17 a selection committee consisting of Mayor Loran Joseph and councilors Lynette Perry and Jason Spriet trimmed the list of candidates to six.

One of those candidates withdrew Monday morning, leaving five, said Robin Nudd, the city’s human resource manager.

In an email to the Baker City Herald, Nudd wrote that councilors plan to announce the names of the finalists during the Council’s regular meeting Tuesday, Oct. 13.

“My hope is that we will have three candidates to invite to our community and we will hold meet and greets with the press, community leaders, current council and the newly elected council members,” Nudd wrote.

The seven-member city council, per the city charter, will choose the new manager.

The proposed salary range is $98,000-$115,000 per year. Warner’s salary for the fiscal year that started July 1 is $104,000.

City officials announced in September they received applications from people in Oregon, Washington, California and Wyoming, as well as from North Carolina and Missouri.

Nudd declined to release the names of the original slate of applicants, or of the five people the council will interview, saying she didn’t want to jeopardize the jobs of those who aren’t finalists. She said the city will announce the names of the finalists who will be invited to Baker City.

The Herald filed a public records request Monday seeking copies of all 14 applications. According to the Oregon Attorney General’s public records manual, public agencies, if they refuse to disclose the names of job applicants, must show, for each applicant, how disclosure would constitute an unreasonable invasion of their privacy.

“Blanket disclosure policies,” the public records manual states, are “not consistent with case law.”