The three announced finalists for the job of Lawrence city manager present some interesting contrasts and choices for Lawrence city commissioners as they consider this most important hiring decision.

Commissioners narrowed the field after interviews last Saturday and have put forward three names for the job: R. Leon Churchill Jr., managing director for Reading, Pa.; David Corliss, Lawrence’s interim city manager; and Dennis Taylor, city manager in Eugene, Ore.

Perhaps one of the top questions commissioners will need to answer is whether it is better to have stability or change. Corliss is a known quantity, who knows Lawrence and wouldn’t be surprised by most of the issues he would face as city manager. Churchill or Taylor, however, would bring experience they had gained in other cities, along with some new ideas and approaches, with them to the Lawrence job. Both have some experience with Lawrence,0 having earned degrees at Kansas University.

Churchill would be leaving a city of similar size to Lawrence. Reading, however, is not a university city. Churchill also could be out of the running before Lawrence makes its selection. He is a finalist for the city manager’s job in Dayton, Ohio, with a population of 158,800, a job that would appear more prestigious and attractive than the Lawrence post.

Churchill and Corliss are similar in age, 44 and 45 respectively. Taylor is 60 and would be moving from a city a bit larger than Lawrence, at about 138,000, but similar in many other ways, including being home to a major state university. An interesting editorial in Tuesday’s Eugene Register-Guard newspaper speculated on an issue that may also have crossed the minds of many Lawrence residents.

“: Lawrence would not appear to be a step up,” the newspaper noted. “It’s plausible that he’s seeking to downshift into a job in a community that is attractive to him.”

The newspaper was generally complimentary of the job Taylor had done but it also noted pressures he had faced from those who wanted to shift more authority away from the city manager’s office. Taylor has been in his current job for four years, Churchill for just two. Lawrence commissioners probably hope the city manager they hire will have a longer tenure in Lawrence than two or four years.

Lawrence needs a city manager who is smart and energetic. He needs to be innovative in certain instances and conservative in others. Someone who has worked for the city for 16 years, as Corliss has, would have a head start in some ways, but new ideas and experience in other cities also can be useful.

The current members of the Lawrence City Commission have been split in their opinions on most important issues facing the city, and it seems likely the same will be true on this crucial hiring decision. It is hoped commissioners will be able to unite behind one of the three finalists and hire a city manager who will provide the kind of energetic, dedicated leadership Lawrence deserves.