There’s a short list of candidates for the Maple Valley City Council to consider for the vacant City Manager position.

The five candidates were introduced Thursday evening during a forum at the Lake Wilderness Grill as one of the culminating events of an eight month search.

Jerry Oldani, a consultant hired by the city to help with the search, said the candidate pool had been fairly large.

“These five applicants are the survivors of about 50,” Oldani said. “We have a lot of talent among these five gentlemen.”

They were interviewed Friday morning and the council went into executive session during afternoon. Oldani said the council could choose to do site visits, select a finalist and extend an offer within a week or even send the consultant back out to find a fresh batch of applicants.

The candidates are:

• Craig Whitehead was most recently served as the assistant city manager in Peoria, Ill. He earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s in public administration from Brigham Young University.

• James Mason is an economic development specialist for the city of Peoria, Ariz. and works in the city manager’s office there.

• Dan Wichmer is the city attorney for Springfield, Mo., where he has worked since 2005. He earned his law degree from University of Missouri.

• David Johnston served most recently as city administrator for Rantoul, Ill. He did his undergraduate work at Notre Dame and earned his MPA at Indiana University.

Carter Napier also has an MPA from BYU and has worked as the city administrator for Riverton, Wyo., since 2003.