The Port Arthur City Council didn’t choose a city manager Tuesday, instead slipping behind closed doors for almost two hours, ostensibly to discuss “duties and responsibilities” of the position.

But while councilmembers ponder the character and qualifications of four remaining finalists for the job, they may lose the interim city manager who has served in that role for 15 months.

“That is not my intent,” Harvey Robinson said when asked by this newspaper if he’d remain at the interim helm until councilmembers choose his replacement. “I’m gone. I’m going home.”

Robinson, who had been long retired as assistant city manager, returned to work in December 2017 after former City Manager Brian McDougal stepped down. Robinson told councilmembers then he’d serve six months to bridge the gap until they found a permanent replacement.

But City Council members, apparently comfortable with Robinson running the city on a day-to-day basis, moved slowly in replacing the interim executive. On Feb. 27, they interviewed the final four of 18 candidates who applied for the job:

• Hani Tohme, a professional engineer and Port Arthur’s director of public services.
• Natasha Henderson, a management consultant and former city manager in Flint, Michigan.
• David Strahl, former city administrator for the city of O’Fallon, Missouri.
• Henrietta Turner, city manager in Floresville, Texas.

Exiting their executive session Tuesday, councilmembers Mayor Derrick Freeman, Harold Doucet, Cal Jones and Raymond Scott — Thomas Kinlaw, Charlotte Moses and Kaprina Frank did not return to the Council Chambers — appeared weary.

“We have no answer today,” Freeman said. “We’re working on it.”

The mayor said councilmembers had concluded a “spirited debate about duties” of the job, and “what each of us thought.”

He said the councilmembers focused much of their time on the city manager duties themselves, less on the finalists. The agenda item for the closed door discussion read simply, “To discuss the duties and responsibilities of the city manager.”

Moses, who was on City Hall’s fourth floor after the meeting, said the agenda item as written would not have permitted the council to choose Robinson’s replacement Tuesday. She said it simply allowed for discussion.

Freeman said no one “separated himself out” during that discussion, although councilmembers said they “don’t want to make the wrong decision.”

The mayor said councilmembers would return Tuesday at their regularly scheduled meeting to discuss the matter again.

“Hopefully, some things can come into clear focus,” he said.