Well, kids … the Mike Mashburn era at Princeton City Hall has come to an end with the resignation of the city manager after being on the job for just shy of two years.

The search now is on for the next chief municipal administrator. I am going to use this blog to insist loudly and clearly that the City Council must conduct the search in the open and avoid the underhanded appearance associated with Mashburn’s hiring. The council makes one hiring decision. It is the man or woman who will implement council policy. They had better get this next one right.

Mashburn came to Princeton from Farmers Branch, where he served as an assistant manager; his field of expertise is in parks and recreation, and I presume he carried out his duties well in Farmers Branch. However, he seemed to lack any general municipal administrative experience.

I happened to be present at the City Council meeting when the council met Mashburn for the first time, went into executive session and then returned to open session to hire him. The vote was unanimous. Frankly, it was an astonishing turn of events. Then-Mayor Brianna Chacon had met with Mashburn privately before presenting him to the council. She contended it was all done with full transparency. My view? No … it wasn’t.

Here’s an idea for the council to consider as it starts to collect data on prospective city manager candidates. Why not follow the lead of other cities and pare the list down to, oh, three or four finalists? Then the council can invite the finalists to Princeton to meet the public and also to visit at length with each of them to assess their respective strengths and/or look for possible weaknesses.

Fort Worth did something like that when it chose its current police chief. It settled on former Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia, but only after showing the public all of the finalists.

The Princeton city manager is going to make something in excess of a quarter-million bucks. He or she will inherit a job in a city that is in the midst of a growth explosion. We all have a stake in the quality of the person chosen for this job. It shouldn’t fall on one person to make that call all alone.

City officials moved into our new municipal center a while back pledging to conduct business in the open and in full public view. Let’s ensure the next city manager gets chosen in a manner that keeps that promise.