Marty Von Schaaf is one of the candidates for Red Bank city manager.
In less than 40 minutes, Red Bank city commissioners whittled a list of 39 applicants for city manager to five.
Only two of the applicants to make the final cut have held a government administrative position, and all but one are local residents.
At a roundtable meeting Wednesday evening, commissioners voted “yes” or “no” as each applicant’s name was read. Names with three or more votes made it to the top five.
As the list narrowed, commissioners debated about who met the job description.
“Three of our top five have no government experience,” said Commissioner Ruth Jeno. “We don’t need a fish out of water here. … We all know that government runs differently than a business.”