NATCHEZ &045; As of Wednesday, the city of Natchez did not have a city planner.

After an executive session with aldermen Tuesday, Mayor Phillip West said he would announce who the new planner would be after he made one phone call on Wednesday.

However, as of Wednesday afternoon, West said he had not yet been able to reach that person by phone.

West can hire a city planner, although aldermen then must ratify that decision.

Andrew Smith and Dennis Story are the two candidates city officials have been considering for the position.

Smith, who runs a planning consulting firm in Jackson, worked for seven years in city planning departments, including work as Natchez’s code enforcement officer from 1994 to 1996.

Story has 22 years of planning experience at the state and local levels and in private firms.

That included serving as director of planning and development from 1991 to 2002 in Alexandria, La., where he now runs a planning consulting firm.

Neither Smith nor Story could be reached for comment Wednesday.

The city’s personnel office received 21 applications for the post.

The list was narrowed to nine semifinalists, but six of those declined.

Aldermen narrowed the candidates down to two in an executive session in late May. The city then conducted background checks, including credit reports, on both finalists as part of the hiring process.

Members of the city’s planning-related commissions have said they need a planner to advise them in their decisions as well as to explain the city’s planning rules to the public.

In addition to a myriad of other duties, the city planner meets frequently with the public to explain the city’s planning, zoning and preservation ordinances, rules and regulations.

He also reviews applications for zoning variances, planning and historic preservation requests and the like and presents them, in the form of

staff reports

, to boards that decide the issues.