ByTom Tolen / news@whmi.com

The number of candidates for Brighton city manager has been pared down significantly from an original list of 38 applicants.

At a special meeting Thursday night, council — meeting mostly in closed session — accepted the recommendation of Frank Walsh, its hired consultant, to dismiss the majority of candidates and reduce it to a workable number of five semifinalists.

The semifinalists include the current acting city manager and finance director in Brighton - Gretchen Gomolka - along with another current local official - Mike Archinal - the Genoa Twp. Manager. Archinal was assistant city manager in Brighton for several years under then-manager Dana Foster until he resigned to become the Genoa Twp. manager. The other semifinalists are Michael Womack, City Manager of Cedar Springs, MI; Nathan Thiel, Interim Economic Development Director for the city of Whitewater, Wisconsin and Samantha Timko, Deputy Supervisor/Chief of Staff in Orion Township, MI.

Brighton City Clerk Tara Brown told WHMI Friday that a couple of special meetings will be held to further narrow the selection process and, hopefully, come up with a new city manager. On July 14th, council will conduct interviews with the five semifinalists and on July 18th there will be a Meet-and-Greet at 3 p.m. at city hall to which the public is invited, followed by a 5 p.m. meeting that same day, at which the new city manager will likely be selected. The person will replace Nate Geinzer, who held the position for six years before resigning effective May 31st.