Last weekend, The Port Arthur News reported that the city of Port Arthur search for a new city manager was down to four candidates out of as many as 18 that originally applied. By looking at the top four, it makes one wonder what the other 14 looked like.

I guess this is what you get when you have a city that changes city managers over the past eight years as often as some people change their underwear. Well, let’s get into it.

Candidate Natasha Henderson is the former city administrator from Flint, Michigan. Henderson was terminated by the city of Flint for failing to inform the mayor there in a timely manner about an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease during the lead-tainted water crisis. Henderson filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the city of Flint. She lost, but a federal court revived it.

Flint, Michigan has a population of 96,000, which declined 6,000 since 2010. Flint has a demographic breakdown much different than Port Arthur’s with 56 percent African American, 37 percent Caucasian, and the remaining population combines Native Americans, Asians, Latinos, Hispanics and many others.

Candidate David Strahl of O’Fallon, Missouri, resigned after only one year as city manager. Wish there was more to offer here, but a quick Google search only shared this. But this should be a concern. Before hiring anyone, a one-year stop to take a breather should be questioned. O’Fallon has a population of 87,000.

On the positive side, O’Fallon looks to be a growing community showing an increase of 8,000 in population since 2010. That’s good, but it is information that should again question a one-year stop. Demographics for O’Fallon are also much different than Port Arthur’s, with 90 percent Caucasian, 4 percent African American, and the remaining ethnicities, 6 percent.

Henrietta Turner is the city manager of Floresville, Texas. I could not find one thing about her during another quick Google search, other than in 2016 the city of Floresville removed a sitting city councilman. Hmmm, that’s interesting.

Now, Floresville is even more different than Flint, Michigan and O’Fallon, Missouri as it is a much smaller population than Port Arthur, at about 7,500. However, it has increased 900 since 2010. Demographics for Floresville show 71 Caucasian; elsewhere, the population is described as 64 percent Hispanic.

Last but surely not least, is the current interim water utilities director for the city of Port Arthur, Hani Tohme. Like Henderson, he remains in litigation with the city of Beaumont after being terminated for Insubordination. Sources in Beaumont told me that after a contentious relationship with Beaumont’s city manager, he refused directives to reduce overtime of supervisors who reported directly to him. Ultimately, that helped those supervisors attain six-figure incomes.

There has been speculation, which was recently confirmed by a Port Arthur city councilmember, that Tohme draws a full-time salary from the city of Port Arthur in his interim position, but also runs his engineering consulting business in Beaumont. Can he be at two places at once? This should not continue as a city manager.

Well, there you have it: Not overly promising. If Port Arthur is going to become a city that we all want and feel it can be, citizens must demand better from those making this decision.

It is for this reason, and is my opinion, that the search needs to be reopened. We need better choices than these.

Rich Macke is publisher of The Port Arthur News.