Red Bank City Hall on Dayton Boulevard
Red Bank city commissioners spent a couple of hours Tuesday interviewing the only two candidates still interested in the city manager position.
Commissioners narrowed the list of 21 applicants to five finalists in August, but since then three finalists have dropped out, leaving only Charles Beale and Randall Smith.
Beale worked in banking for more than 30 years and currently serves as the city manager and city recorder in McKenzie, Tenn., a town of about 5,000 located 60 miles north of Jackson. Red Bank has a population of just over 11,000.
Smith has 25 years of experience working with state governments and runs a company that helps private sector businesses form government partnerships.
The commissioners questioned each candidate for about an hour as they try to fill a spot that’s been empty for nearly a year — since commissioners abruptly fired previous city manager Chris Dorsey in October 2011.