WARRENTON – A field of 29 applicants for Warrenton’s city manager position was narrowed to 19 in time for a special City Commission meeting Tuesday, convened to settle on criteria for use in picking the city’s next top administrator.

Michael McCauley, executive director of the League of Oregon Cities, who is helping Warrenton leaders with the recruitment process, had already made the first cut. The commissioners eliminated 13 more Tuesday, leaving a half dozen potential finalists to face preliminary interviews next week, Commissioner Frank Orrell said.

Bob Maxfield, now doing double duty as both chief of police and city manager, was asked to take the helm when Preston Polasek suddenly departed in January after less than five months as city manager. Maxfield is among the six names on the short list of likely prospects for the permanent position, Mayor Gil Gramson said. Others hail from as far away as Massachusetts and Alaska.

The next step in the recruitment process will be a preliminary interview by phone with the five candidates from out of town. Orrell said it will be a conference call that will include all of the commission members and McCauley. Each will be asked an identical series of questions, he said.

A goal of the conference call interviews is to find out if candidates are truly interested in the position before bringing them to Warrenton for in-depth interviews, City Recorder Linda Engbretson explained. The commission hopes to make the calls at a special meeting next week, possibly Thursday, if the logistics can be worked out.

“We’ve got a lot of good applicants, very well qualified. The city should end up with a well-qualified manager,” Orrell said. “We want to move forward as expeditiously as possible.”

According to the job description for Warrenton city manager, the position has a salary range of $80,000 to $90,000 a year, with generous benefits. It says the city has a $3 million general fund budget, 40 full-time equivalent employees and a 4,330 population that’s expected to grow to 7,000 by 2012.