They've gone roughly 10 years with the same person. With a little luck, Austin's next city administrator will last that long, if not longer.

The city's finance and personnel committee approved Monday for the Brimeyer Group, Inc. search firm to collect resumes and screen candidates for the position that will be vacated by Patrick McGarvey the first part of next year.

James Brimeyer said his agency will conduct thorough screenings of candidates. However, it will ultimately be up to the council to decide on the appropriate person.

"We draft up a proposal and it helps serve as a marketing tool," Brimeyer said. "That way, they could say 'Austin looks like a neat place. It sounds like I would want to go there.'"

Brimeyer said his agency conducts a screening process that not only includes criminal, credit and education background checks, but to also see if the candidate's profile would be a good fit for the town and the council.

Brimeyer suggested to the committee that the draft for the position should be completed and available for candidates no later than Dec. 10. That way, deadlines for applications can be in early January, which would help move the hiring process along more quickly.

The committee unanimously approved the group to conduct the search.