Aiken City Council will interview what interim City Manager Roger LeDuc called five "semifinalists" Saturday for the city manager position - a position left open since June 2014.
The interviews will start around 8:30 a.m. and end around 2 p.m. in the City's Municipal Building, 214 Park Ave.
Council will vote in Chambers to go into executive session, which the press and public are not allowed to attend. Council members then will interview the candidates.
Three of the candidates will be interviewed in the morning slot, and the last two will be interviewed in the afternoon, LeDuc said.
Both a representative from Slavin Management Consultants, the Georgia firm hired to find and vet the City's next manager, and City Attorney Gary Smith will sit in on the interviews.
LeDuc told the Aiken Standard that since Council hired Slavin in October, the City has received 109 applications, and after reviewing and vetting the applications, Slavin narrowed the search to 12 applicants.
LeDuc said the 12 were presented to Council in an executive session, and Council was instructed to fill out a form ranking them from one to 12 to indicate their interest. That list was then compiled by Slavin, which narrowed the list down to five candidates.
LeDuc told the Aiken Standard last month most of the candidates are from out of state and currently working other jobs, but he could not comment whether applicants were mostly male or female.
Council is allowed to enter into executive session if it involves hiring, firing or discipline of an employee, including the discussion of contract negotiations.
According to South Carolina's Freedom of Information Act, "all materials, regardless of form, gathered by a public body during a search to fill an employment position, except that materials relating to not fewer than the final three applicants under consideration for a position, must be made available for public inspection and copying. In addition to making available for public inspection and copying the materials described in this item, the public body must disclose, upon request, the number of applicants considered for a position."
The FOI Act continues, "For the purpose of this item 'materials relating to not fewer than the final three applicants' do not include an applicant's income tax returns, medical records, social security number, or information otherwise exempt from disclosure by this section."
The state's FOIA laws can be found at www.scpress.org.
LeDuc has filled the city manager position as an interim since June, after former City Manager Richard Pearce resigned.
The City last searched for its CEO position in 2011, after LeDuc retired from the city manager seat, and then-Assistant City Manager Richard Pearce was selected by Council to fill his position. The Aiken Standard reported in 2011 that the City received approximately 45 resumes from around the state and the country.
Maayan Schechter is the local government reporter with Aiken Standard. Follow her on Twitter @MaayanSchecter.