ESCANABA — While no decisions have been made on who will fill the open Escanaba city clerk and I.T administrator position, the names of the final candidates being considered for the job have officially been released.

Tammy Weissert, Phil DeMay and Steven Krupski, all of the greater Escanaba area, and Nick Renyolds of Muskegon, were interviewed by the council members Thursday.

“After each interview we subjected each candidate to a test that was composed of grammar composition as well as I.T. knowledge just as a baseline,” said City Manager Patrick Jordan, who noted the administration of the test was debated by the council members, but ultimately was approved in a 3-2 vote.

According to Jordan, the hiring selection will be high on the agenda for the Dec. 6 regular city council meeting.

Whoever the council choses will be filling the position formerly held by Lisa Glish, who served as the city’s clerk and I.T. administrator for roughly four-and-a-half months, from May 17 to Sept. 28. She vacated the position after concerns about her hiring process were raised by community and council members.

Key among the concerns were Glish’s handling of resumes while serving as the administrative assistant to Jordan, the internal posting of the position without council’s approval, and the candidate selection process used by the council itself.

Multiple community members also raised concerns that Glish’s hire had hindered the advancement of Weissert, who served as the city’s deputy clerk, and was the favored candidate of Mayor Pro-Temp Ron Beauchamp and Council Member Michael Sattem during that hiring process. Weissert has served as the interim city clerk since Glish’s departure.

During this round of hiring, the city council rectified many of the issues that arose during the last search for a city clerk. The council was directly involved in the creation of the job description for the position, and council members were asked to select their top candidates for the position from the pool of 41 applicants without ranking their choices.

In the search that led to Glish’s hire, Sattem selected only three candidates rather than the four requested, and Beauchamp treated the four ranking slots as votes by choosing Weissert four times. In this round of hiring, each council member selected their top four candidates and the lists were compared to identify candidates with support from multiple council members.

At a special meeting held Nov. 19, the council members reviewed a master list compiled by Jordan that included all of the candidates recommended by the council. Of that list, two were selected by three council members, three were selected by two council members, and the remaining candidates received one vote each. No candidate names were released at this meeting.

One of the candidates selected on Nov. 19 had already secured employment elsewhere and removed themselves from the running.