VERGENNES — Vergennes officials remained optimistic about finding a new city manager after the city council on Tuesday met to conduct online interviews with candidates, but were reluctant to identify those candidates.
“Out of respect for our candidates we are unable to yet release names,” said Deputy Mayor Jeff Fritz, chairman of the committee charged with finding a replacement for retiring City Manager Mel Hawley.
Fritz said the committee hopes to interview a candidate or candidates in person either later this week or early next week.  
“We are scheduling face-to-face interviews,” he said. “We’re shooting for Friday and maybe next Tuesday.”
Despite being tight-lipped on identifying a finalist or finalists, Fritz said he remained confident the search would be successful.
“We are in the final stages and hope to being negotiating with a final candidate within the next week to 10 days,” he said.
Fritz said the committee members have felt little pressure and fielded few questions from residents during a search coordinated also by the Vermont League of Cities and Towns. An earlier in-house search came up empty.
“It’s encouraging that our citizens are trusting us to go through this process,” Fritz said. “This is a really important hire. The process is really important.”