A Central Health board committee tasked with overseeing the search for the public health district's new CEO expects to have the top five candidates identified by mid-February before interviews begin in March.

The committee received an update Wednesday from Laura Musfeldt, a vice president with B.E. Smith, the recruitment firm hired by Central Health this past October.

Musfeldt said B.E. Smith is interviewing potential candidates and completing background checks. She said she should have a list of the top five ready for the committee by Feb. 13.

For now, candidates' names will not be publicly released.

Musfeldt said revealing the names of prospective candidates could jeopardize any who have not told their current employers they are seeking new jobs. That will change once finalists are selected, she said.

Central Health's search committee consists of Charles Bell, Guadalupe Zamora and Sherri Greenberg, all members of the health district's board of managers. Katrina Daniel, the board chairperson, serves as the committee's chair.

Other Central Health board members are also able to attend committee meetings.

The health district's previous CEO Patricia Young Brown retired from the position at the end of 2016, citing a desire to pursue other personal and professional interests and spend more time with her family. Young Brown has since become CEO at the Thinkery museum in Austin's Mueller area.

Larry Wallace, Central Health's executive vice president and chief operating officer, is serving as interim CEO until a permanent replacement is found.

During the committee meeting Wednesday, Central Health board manager Cynthia Valadez said she did not believe enough had been done to allow public input in the development of a list of desired qualifications for the new CEO.

Central Health selected members of the community to join a stakeholder group to provide input in December.

Valadez said she did not think that using a stakeholder group allowed input from a broad enough demographic of people. She said she would have rather had an open forum to elicit feedback.

Daniel disagreed, and said she believed that selecting stakeholders to provide comment was "a more deliberate way of ensuring you have a breadth of input."

According to a search timeline from B.E. Smith, the first round of interviews between the top five candidates and the committee is expected to begin in March.

Those five will be whittled down to two or more finalists who will be invited for on-site visits and additional interviews later that month before a selection is made by the Central Health board.