The Columbia Falls City Council will interview two finalist candidates for the open city manager position.

The council had whittled down a pool of applicants to three last week, but one dropped out.

The two finalists are Aaron D. Palmer and Eric M. Hanks.

Both men have experience as city managers.

Palmer is from Valley Springs, California and was the city manager of Live Oak, California from April 2019 to March 2024.

Prior to that he was the city manager of Canyon Lake, California. He has an extensive background beyond that as a city administrator, deputy city manager and other administrative roles  in other communities in California going back to the 1990s.

He has a master’s of arts from the University of Phoenix and a bachelor’s of science from California  State Polytechnical University.

Hanks is a naval officer and pilot and was and was the commanding officer of the Naval Air Station on Whidby Island in Washington state from 2021 to August 2024. 

He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in computer science in 1997 and received a master’s in science in national security studies in 2016 from the U.S. National Defense University.

At Whidby Island he oversaw a workforce of 10,000 workers and 15,000 dependent family members and retirees.

Previously, he was the Chief of Staff for the Navy’s programming office and before that he was a strategic political and operations research analyst for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The interviews are open to the public and will start at 9 a.m. Friday at city council chambers. The council will then go into executive session to make its final decision.