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The city of Marco Island released its list of 15 candidates for the position of city manager late Friday afternoon, reversing a decision made earlier in the week to keep the information private.

Of the 15 candidates, just one is a current public administrator in Florida, Dale S. Sugerman, the town manager of Highland Beach on the state’s east coast. Twelve of the candidates work out of state, and of the remaining two candidates, one works in Florida’s private sector and the other was most recently employed as a city manager in the state. Also, only one of the 15 candidates, Michael L. Stampfler, was among 61 applicants for the Naples city manager position when it was open in the fall. Stampfler did not make Naples’s list of 10 finalists.

Naples hired former Marco Island City Manager Bill Moss, who was the only manager in the city’s 10-year history. Former Clearwater City Manager Tony Shoemaker has held Marco’s job on an interim basis since November. Shoemaker is not on the list of candidates for the permanent position.

The list of 15 was narrowed from 74 applicants by Tom Freijo, a senior vice president at Winter Haven-based The Mercer Group, the city’s consulting firm in the search. Freijo also advised Naples in its city manager selection.

Freijo is scheduled to present the candidates to City Council during Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting. It will be the first meeting for three newly-elected councilors: Jerry Gibson, Frank Recker and Wayne Waldack.

The names of the 15 candidates were not easy to come by as the city had maintained it wanted to keep the list private and only in the hands of the four current councilors and the three council-elects until Monday.

Shoemaker e-mailed the four current councilors and the three new members Thursday morning stating they would receive the 15 resumes on Friday in a sealed envelope from Freijo addressed directly to them.

The reason for not sending the resumes sooner, Shoemaker wrote, “is an attempt to provide some protection to the candidates that make the first cut of 12 to 18 but do not make the final cut of 6 to 8. It has happened in other communities that when the resumes are released earlier that individuals have made phone calls to the candidates home community. This exposes the candidates to unwanted attention even though they are not a finalist.”

The Daily News made a request for the 15 resumes on Friday afternoon and Shoemaker told a reporter that the seven sealed envelopes had left city hall around 2 p.m., and the city had not kept a copy of the records.

When asked whether the city was claiming an exemption from Florida’s public records law by not making them available on Friday, Shoemaker said the city wasn’t. He added the public records law allowed the city to have “a reasonable amount of time” to provide records and the city would be making them available on Monday. But he referred to his e-mail when asked whether the applicants’ privacy concerns were the reason why the city chose its distribution method for the resumes.

“I don’t think it’s unusual to ask that the council review it before it’s made public,” Shoemaker said.

Adria Harper, a director with the First Amendment Foundation, a media-funded state open records organization, said although candidates’ desire for privacy when applying for a job is understandable, it’s not one of the exemptions listed from the state’s public records law.

“It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever heard of given that they’re going to release them a couple days later,” Harper said. “Still, public records law does not allow agencies to withhold information without a specific exemption.”

“If you’re applying for a public position in Florida, your information is going to be public,” she added.

After speaking with Shoemaker, the Daily News contacted Councilman Bill Trotter, who went to Marco’s city hall and made a copy of the resumes for city records. The city then provided the resumes to various local media outlets, including the Daily News.

Even though Freijo, the city’s search consultant, had hoped to cut in half the list of 15 candidates during Monday night’s meeting, some councilors are already frustrated with the selection process.

Council-elect Frank Recker replied to Shoemaker’s Thursday e-mail, asking the city to hold off on reducing the number of candidates until council has more time to review the list. Recker also suggested each of the city manager candidates prepare a brief video presentation to explain why they are the best person for the job. Council could see those videos at a special meeting called as soon as March 24, he wrote.

“I don’t think it’s reasonable for me to go from 15 down to six in a period of one hour,” Recker said in a telephone interview Friday. “I’d feel rushed if I get something that’s so important to the future of the city on a Friday, have to look at it over the weekend and then make decisions during my first council meeting. I’m not ready to do that.”

Incumbent Councilman Rob Popoff echoed the sentiments expressed in Recker’s e-mail in a separate interview Friday. Popoff said he would make a request to delay the selection process if Recker himself didn’t do it.

“To do this without any lead time is ridiculous,” Popoff said. “I will move so that it doesn’t happen.”