WATERVILLE — Residents Tuesday voted 2,284-1,183 to approve a change to the City Charter that allows city managers to live outside city limits.

The referendum question was on the ballot because the city has had a difficult time recruiting qualified candidates for the position since former City Manager Bryan Kaenrath left in May to become Lewiston’s city administrator. Waterville officials have said they believe the charter requirement that managers must live in the city has contributed to that problem.

The City Council is in the process of conducting its third city manager search. In June, following the city’s second search, the council decided none of the candidates was the right fit. Don Gerrish, who is leading the search, told the council there are many qualified candidates in Maine who would be interested in the job but at this stage in their careers, selling a home and relocating is not feasible for them.

The council conducted a first search several weeks before that and interviewed four candidates but councilors could not come to a consensus, so they decided to readvertise.

Mayor Mike Morris said he thinks that when prospective candidates learned city officials had placed the residency question on the ballot, they were more inclined to apply for the job.

“We definitely had a more refined group of people for this last round,” Morris said Monday. “We had some good discussions.”

More than a dozen people applied for the city manager’s job in the current search and the council decided to bring back six for interviews, Morris said. One of the candidates got a job elsewhere, so the council interviewed five, he said.

“Three came back to meet with the department heads last week,” he said. “We’re going to interview again on Thursday.”

None of the candidates lives in Waterville, he said.

“We have some really good candidates,” he said. “I’m pretty excited to see how this plays out and really just get going.”

He said Cornell Knight, the acting city manager, has done a great job filling in.

“He’s done some really good things, but there’s a limit to the things he wants to do. A lot has to do with long-term positions and changes, which I respect. I’m very excited that this process will come to a close. I think that we’re going to have a really good person in the role of city manager and I look forward to what that brings.”

Morris said he hopes a manager will be in place before the end of the year or shortly thereafter.

Exactly when a new city manager would start depends on how quickly things falls into place.

“I would be very surprised if this person wasn’t starting Monday, Jan. 5,” Morris said. “In a perfect world, anywhere from the middle of December to the fifth of January would be ideal for everybody.”

City Clerk Patti Dubois said 5,782 ballots were cast in the last gubernatorial election and Waterville needed 30% of that, or 1,735 voters, to decide Tuesday’s charter change. By Monday afternoon, nearly 1,300 absentee ballots had been returned to the city, so she expected that threshold would be met.

Gerrish started helping the city search for a new manager when he worked for Eaton Peabody Consulting Services of Augusta, a firm that announced it would cease operations. Meanwhile, Gerrish formed his own firm, Municipal Consulting Services LLC, and continued the Waterville search.

The city hired Eaton Peabody in February for $8,000 after Kaenrath announced he would resign in May to become city administrator for Lewiston.

The city hired Knight in April to serve as interim city manager.