HALLOWELL — Residents say they want their new city manager to be a finance-minded problem solver who can seek creative solutions to keeping property taxes low.

About 40 Hallowell residents met with Eaton Peabody hiring consultant Don Gerrish on Tuesday, in one of the first steps in Hallowell’s search to replace for City Manager Gary Lamb, who will leave his post in June. Lamb announced his resignation last month during a weekend City Council work session.

Residents were given a chance to voice their thoughts on Hallowell’s future and the characteristics they would like to see in a new manager, which Gerrish said he will use to evaluate candidates who apply for the open position.

The search comes in the wake of a 20% tax increase approved by the City Council last summer — after which city leaders spent several months unsuccessfully and illegally attempting to overturn their approval of the municipal budget to lower residents’ tax burden.

Following a trend that started in the aftermath of the tax increase, several residents said they would like to see the new city manager find creative ways to keep the tax burden as low as possible.

“Finance is very important, but as much as understanding how finances work, having a sense of frugality and being able to stretch a dollar and think outside the box,” said John McNaughton, a resident who has often spoken in favor of spending cuts since the tax increase was passed. “We currently have one of the highest per capita tax burdens of any of the surrounding cities. We are a small city. We’re not Portland, and we can’t act like Portland because we don’t have the tax base to be able to support that.”

Lauren McPherson, the recently elected Ward 5 councilor, said she agreed with McNaughton. But she said the solution to the city’s tax burden problem is not to bring more people in to expand the tax base; she said the new city manager should be willing to find other ways to cut spending and increase revenue.

Ward 5 covers Hallowell’s rural western portion.

“While I think Hallowell is often recognized for its downtown, it’s often forgotten that we have a beautiful open space in Ward 5, and that’s something that a lot of people benefit from,” she said. “Yet if we try to bring more people in just to help us with tax burdens, we’re going to see more and more development — we’re going to see that land lost. We’re going to need creative ways to prevent that from happening — not just bringing in new people to support that tax burden.”

Other residents suggested the city manager should be open to aggressively cutting spending, including eliminating some municipal services, like police and fire, to save taxpayers money.

The city’s search for a new manager began in earnest late last month after officials hired Gerrish to complete the search. Gerrish has 15 years of experience conducting searches for municipal leaders, and worked for almost 30 years as town manager of Gorham and Brunswick. Gerrish is also under contract to search for new managers for Waterville, Bangor and Harrison.

The search is expected to take about three months, using both nationwide and New England-based city manager groups to advertise the position. But that timeline depends on finding the right candidate — a feat that has become less certain in recent years, Gerrish said in a City Council meeting last month.

Some residents said they would like the city manager to be a younger figure who can effectively engage other young people in the community. Gerrish said that was unlikely, especially after the end of UMaine’s public administration program about 15 years ago. Younger candidates, he said, are unlikely to be interested in applying — or even qualified in the first place.

Applications for the city manager position are due April 1. City officials hope to hire a candidate by mid-May.