LOCKPORT— Jeffrey M. Glatz, whose candidacy for Niagara County manager occasioned more discussion than any of the other applicants at the first two search committee meetings, said Friday he views the manager’s role as carrying out the County Legislature’s policies.

“I view it as someone who’s managing the assets of the county,” Glatz said. He said the manager should advise the Legislature if it’s doing something that he views as detrimental to the county’s well-being.

Glatz, whose term on the North Tonawanda Board of Education expired last week, said it’s not true that he hasn’t worked in government, as members of the committee have said.

He’s a government employee now. He’s been administrator since 2003 of the Village of Orleans nursing home in Albion, which is owned by Orleans County. And in the 1980s, Glatz said, he was the administrator of county-owned nursing homes in Chautauqua and Wayne counties.

His nursing home career also includes private-sector stints at the helm of the Presbyterian Homes of Western New York from 1996 to 2002, and at Ridgeview Manor in Lackawanna in 2002-03.

Although the bipartisan search committee agreed on 12 candidates for further consideration at its last meeting June 16, Glatz has been the flash point.

The first meeting saw a party-line split, with Democrats deeming him unqualified on his face because of his lack of a master’s degree in business administration or public administration. Those are criteria specified in the local law creating the manager’s post. But Republicans insisted that Glatz’s master’s degree in health facilities management is good enough.

Glatz is a registered Republican who has donated $500 to the county GOP committee over the past two years. He described himself as a conservative, although “not a tea partyer.”

“I think [county government] needs to be more conservative,” Glatz said.

He said he wasn’t recruited for the job. “You can’t help but see over the years in reading the newspapers the concerns and dissent people had with the current county manager [Gregory D. Lewis],” he said.

Two of the 12 candidates the committee wanted to hear more about have withdrawn from the race.

Besides Glatz, the field includes:

Richard P. Pope, director of the county Refuse Disposal District since 1993 and the only Niagara County employee among the 37 people who sent in resumes.

Paul W. Wolf, general counsel of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority.

Harold S. Hopkins, personnel manager of the West Seneca Developmental Center and brother of the late Niagara County Legislator Curtis S. Hopkins.

Craig R. Ward, former city manager of SeaTac, Wash., the municipality hosting the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Alan L. Grindstaff, who until March was city manager in Jasper City, Texas.

Charles C. Saddler, former city administrator in Port Townsend, Wash.

Timothy G. Smith, former manager of Otero County, N. M.

Pamela S. Coskie, who until March was city manager in Alliance, Neb.

Randolph D. Terronez of Davenport, Iowa, who until last year was county manager of Iowa County, Wisc.