One of six remaining applicants will be named the new Bend city manager within a few weeks, but Bend residents might not know who’s left in the running until two days before the selection date.

Candidate names won’t be released until three finalists are determined on Aug. 25, and the city hopes to select a new city manager on Aug. 27. The only public appearances from any candidates are scheduled on the evening of Aug. 25, after the finalists are announced.

But Matt McCoy, chairman of the city manager search committee, said he considers the hiring process to be in the public’s best interests.

”I sort of consider people to be involved throughout the public, because members of the search committee came from the general public,” McCoy said. ”But as far as a public forum type of discussion, I don’t think that’s going to be a part of the final process.

”We’ve identified what we consider to be a reasonable timeline, and we’re sticking to it. We’re making sure that we’re thorough with the process, but we’re making sure that it’s beneficial to everyone involved, including the community.”

City Councilor Kathie Eckman, a member of the search committee, said the remaining candidates would be flown into Bend with their spouses or significant others on late Aug. 23 or early the next day to tour the city on Aug. 24. The search committee will interview the candidates throughout Aug. 25 and name three finalists by that night.

The three finalists will appear at some sort of public reception that night, Eckman said, but she didn’t know how the finalists would be presented or where the reception would take place.

The job search will resume Aug. 27. Each finalist will be interviewed by the city council in a closed executive session, and the search committee will make its recommendation of which finalist should be hired.

The city council should name its choice by the late afternoon or evening, and final negotiations could possibly be completed that night.

However, this process for hiring a new city manager contrasts with the way the Bend-La Pine School District hired a new superintendent last year. At that time, each finalist spent two days in public meetings during the last month of the search.

No public meetings have been held for any city manager candidates, and the Aug. 25 reception will be an informal gathering, Eckman said.

But Eckman, who retired last year from the Bend/La Pine School District’s human resources department and helped orchestrate the superintendent search, said she thinks the processes used then and now are similar.

”I don’t think it was any less open or any more open than what we’re doing right now,” she said.

City Councilor Bruce Abernethy, who is on the search committee, said the public interaction took place when the city manager search committee was formed.

”The public is not going to have nearly as much information as members of the search committee, which has looked extensively at backgrounds and had interviews,” Abernethy said. ”To that extent, I don’t think the process is harmed. I don’t think we’re keeping the community out.”

Eckman said people close to the hiring process are withholding the names of candidates to protect them at their current jobs.

She said that job openings draw more candidates when the hiring process is low-key because there’s a decreased risk of candidates losing their current jobs.

”At some point, they need to be notifying their current places of employment that they’ve applied at other places,” Eckman said. ”But unsuccessful candidates might not want that publicity.

”This is a great process. It sounds like we’re being secretive, but it’s just because of confidentiality and trying to get the best people we can get.”