The Lawrence City Commission is less than two weeks away from holding final interviews with its three city manager candidates, one of whom is likely to be leading the city very soon.

The interviews will be preceded by a public reception Dec. 17, at which Lawrence residents can meet the finalists. The final three candidates are Roderick “Rod” Bremby, of Glastonbury, Conn.; Cheryl Harrison-Lee, of Gardner; and Thomas “Tom” Markus, of Iowa City, Iowa.

For this week’s Journal-World survey — with just 11 days to go before the public meet-and-greet — we decided to get feedback from 1,000 LJWorld.com readers on what qualities were most important in whomever would become the next city manager.

Google Consumer Surveys generated a word cloud from the answers, with the size and color of each word indicating the frequency it was written in as an answer.

Here’s a look at the results:

The quality most given was “honesty.” It accounted for 13.5 percent of the answers. The next most given answer was “integrity,” with 4.1 percent, then “experience” with 3.5 percent. “Competency,” “leadership,” “transparency” and “smarts” each accounted for about 1 percent of answers.

From there, the answers were mostly unique. Here’s a list of some of the answers that had anywhere from 0.7 to 0.1 percent: common sense, trustworthiness, fiscal responsibility, trust, vision, business friendly, responsibility, accountability, ethical, progressive, frugal, happy, not a crook, compassion, conservative, fair, flexibility, character, liberal, neutral, nice, open-minded, organized, visionary, practical and loyal.

A few answers were more specific (and not really qualities), including, “no new apartment complexes downtown,” “balance between development and infill” and “revitalize the blight of the student ghetto.”

We nixed a few from the word cloud, including answers that were only one letter or said “I don’t know” or a similar sentiment. The total number of answers still ended up at about 1,000.

Before answering this question, respondents were asked whether they were registered voters in Lawrence. They only moved on in the survey if they answered “yes.”

Those who answered the survey have a lot of ideas about what they want in a city manager. The person selected for the role will oversee city departments, administer the annual budget, prepare the weekly City Commission agenda, and coordinate compliance with state and federal laws, among other things.

The city hired Ralph Anderson & Associates, an executive search firm, to help find a new city manager. Fifty-four people applied for the position, and 32 met the qualifications.

In an executive session in October, the City Commission narrowed the pool of applicants to eight. In another executive session Nov. 8, those eight were interviewed, and commissioners selected Bremby, Harrison-Lee and Markus as the final three.

In our survey, we asked whether LJWorld.com readers were satisfied with the process. Answers ran the gamut.

Here are the results of that question:

The option that received the most answers was “neither satisfied nor dissatisfied,” with 26.6 percent of votes.

“Very satisfied” garnered 10.1 percent, and 18.9 percent answered “somewhat satisfied.”

“Somewhat dissatisfied” had 6.3 percent, and “very dissatisfied” 3.5 percent.

The remaining respondents answered “no opinion” (18.4 percent) or “I don’t know” (16.2 percent).

The results had a margin of error of 1.7 to 2.8 percentage points.

It’s not yet sure when the new city manager would start in the position. Mayor Mike Amyx has said that after final interviews Dec. 18, someone would be selected and negotiations would begin.

The vacancy was created in June, when former City Manager David Corliss resigned to become the town manager of Castle Rock, Colo. Assistant City Manager Diane Stoddard has been serving in an interim role since then.

The public meet-and-greet with the final three candidates will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 17 at the Carnegie Building. Interviews will start at noon the following day.