Auburn Mayor Tim Lattimore couldn't be more wrong in his approach to filling the city manager position.

As he's prone to do, Lattimore dropped a bombshell at last week's city council meeting when he put forth a motion to make interim city manager Michael Long the permanent city manager. This proposal came despite little or no public discussion about how the city should approach the search for city manager since John Salomone left the post last month.

Fortunately, Lattimore wasn't able to convince his fellow councilors to take an extremely premature vote on the measure.

They agreed to hold off for a little while (though it may only be a week), and possibly discuss hiring a search consultant.

But the mayor sees no need for such thoroughness. He's found his man and he's ready to vote.

Now it could turn out that Long is the best choice for the job, but the key word here is “choice.”

At this point, city councilors have generated no choices, and this position is far too important to fill without at least exploring what's out there.

Lattimore believes the thorough search that brought John Salomone to Auburn is a reason to avoid a similar process this time around. His dislike of Salomone has never been a secret, but it's time to get over it. Salomone is gone - move on.

That said, perhaps the council can do things differently this time, but that doesn't mean you abandon a search completely.

Ultimately, if Lattimore succeeds in getting Long this job without a review of any alternatives, he's doing his pick a disservice.

Long will be in a much stronger position to lead if he's determined to be the best pick among a slate of candidates.

Otherwise, his tenure could be clouded by a lingering question: could Auburn have found someone better for this job?