PORT ARTHUR, Texas — After more than two years without a city manager, Port Arthur has narrowed the list down to four.
In a special executive session, the mayor and city council said the next city manager position is down to Terrence Arrington, Ronald Burton, Scott Moore and DeCarlon Seewood.
A Dallas-area firm conducted a nationwide search for candidates. Port Arthur released the four finalists in an email Monday, but they did not include biographies about any of the candidates.
Burton has been with the city since 2008 and was named interim city manager in August, according to previous stories from 12News.
Seewood is a former city manager in Ferguson, Missouri, according to a Google news search. He was appointed to the post in the year after a Ferguson police officer shot and killed Michael Brown. He resigned in February.
Since Brian McDougal resigned as city manager in 2017, Port Arthur has had three different people fill the role temporarily.
McDougal said his resignation was a mutual decision with Port Arthur city council members.
"The city council had concerns, I had concerns, so we came together and had a business-like meeting of the minds and this is the result," McDougal said in 2017.
McDougal served as city manager for two years before resigning. He oversaw 650 employees and an annual budget of more than $141 million.
This isn't the first time the city has had four finalists. In February, council members also released four names but decided against naming any of those candidates as manager.
In October, Port Arthur was named the second most miserable city in America by Business Insider. Gary, Indiana, was named the most miserable city in the study.
The study is based on census data and takes into consideration things like population change, household income and poverty.
"I believe whoever wrote the article is a miserable type of person or maybe living in a miserable city," Port Arthur Mayor Thurman Bartie said.
According to Business Insider, out of Port Arthur's 55,000 residents, 30 percent are living in poverty.
The city's been hit by hurricanes in 2005, 2008, and a tropical storm in 2017 which caused the city $1.3 billion in damages.
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*Editor's Note: The above video is from October 2019