The Austin City Council will discuss a draft of a contract to make Craig Clark Austin’s next city administrator just before its Monday meeting.

The City Council is slated to discuss the draft first at a closed session at 4:45 p.m. and then in an open meeting. The council’s regular bimonthly meeting will follow at 5:30 p.m.

On Oct. 4, the council voted 5-1, with Jeff Austin voting no and Michael Jordal abstaining, to offer the vacant city administrator position to Clark, the city administrator in Worthington.

The council fired former administrator Jim Hurm last December. After several months of searching, the council brought four candidates — Kandis Hanson, Andrew Morris, Pat Oman and Steve Wilke — to Austin on Sept. 19 and 20 for interviews, but the council could not reach a consensus on a candidate. On Sept. 25, the council decided to bring in two additional candidates for interviews. One was Clark, but the second additional candidate declined to be interviewed. Before Clark was offered the job Oct. 4, Hanson and Wilke were still in contention.

Clark has been in contract negotiations with City Attorney David Hoversten and Human Resources Director Trish Weichmann.

The council previously announced plans to offer the new city administrator a contract of $120,000 to $130,000 a year.

Clark and his wife, Anita, have two sons and a daughter: Garrett, 10; Peyton, 8; and Emma, 6. If he and the city reach an agreement, Clark noted it’d be at least a month before he started in Austin.

The city’s offer and the contract draft aren’t necessarily guarantees that Clark is headed for Austin. Clark, in Worthington since December of 2008, turned down an offer to become the city administrator in West St. Paul in 2012 after he and the city couldn’t reach a contract agreement.