Hermosa Beach officials are expected to appoint...

Hermosa Beach officials are expected to appoint a new city manager Tuesday, but some officials are still wondering why they lost their previous candidate for the job.

Cudahy City Manager Gerald Caton said last month that he expected to accept Hermosa Beach’s offer, but he later announced that he was staying in Cudahy to see some projects completed there.

Some officials have wondered aloud whether Caton was angered when Hermosa Beach Treasurer Gary Brutsch called a Cudahy official and discussed Caton.

Brutsch, a former councilman, said he simply called the day after the job offer was made public to find out whether Cudahy’s treasurer is appointed or, as in Hermosa Beach, elected. (The Cudahy treasurer is appointed.) In an interview, Brutsch said he just wanted to know because it might affect how Caton dealt with him as an elected treasurer.

Brutsch insisted that he did not call to check up on Caton but added that there would be nothing wrong if he did.

Mayor Etta Simpson, however, said she was concerned about Brutsch’s call to Cudahy and wondered if it had anything to do with Caton’s withdrawal.

Caton insists that it didn’t.

“I don’t have anything against anybody down there--including the city treasurer,” Caton said in a telephone interview from Cudahy. “I’m sure I could have worked with him just fine.”

Still, Councilman Jim Rosenberger said he is “concerned and curious as to what function (Brutsch) was serving in line with his duties. . . . I didn’t know we had any direct dealings with the City of Cudahy in terms of finances. . . . Maybe he’s trying to start a new sister city. . . . Maybe he was just testing his phone and it happened to dial Cudahy.”