For the past few days, James Brimeyer, president of The Brimeyer Group search firm, has met with the Austin City Council, Mower County board members, Riverland Community College staff and other community representatives to gather input to build a profile of the city for a city administrator candidate.

The two basic purposes for the profile, Brimeyer said, is it helps the hiring authorities to narrow in their search. Plus, it's also a marketing tool.

Two council members and one community member attended the forum last night.

"This step is the process is the most important … we push hard to make sure this part of the process is accurate so we don't run into problems in March," Brimeyer said.

Brimeyer will meet today with community Leaders and proceed to put the profile together in the next four to five days.

The council will then look at the draft at the next meeting on Dec. 2 for approval. According to Brimeyer, he will send out some 200 to 300 copies to people who are interested.

"We go back to our files, we see who has applied and looked good. We also have directories of city administrators," Brimeyer said.

The group met with 15 to 20 candidates to determine how they match the profile. Those are then narrowed down to a list of five or six, who the council then interviews and hires one candidate.

"This is an attractive position right now," Brimeyer said.

Roxana Orellana can be reached at 434-2214 or by e-mail at roxana.orellana@austindailyherald.com