NEWPORT BEACH : Final Interviews for New Manager Begin

The City Council is scheduled to meet in closed session this morning to interview the remaining candidates for city manager after having narrowed the pool to a few contenders in a closed meeting Friday afternoon.

Council members said they winnowed the list of applicants to three or four and could reach a decision this afternoon. However, because plans for today’s meeting were made late Friday, not all candidates may be available for interviews, and the decision could be postponed until the beginning of next week.

Longtime Alhambra City Manager Kevin J. Murphy confirmed Friday that he was a finalist for the job but said he had not been notified as to whether he was needed for an interview as a contender on the shortened list.

“That I’m a candidate is about all I want to say right now,” Murphy said.

One council member, who asked not to be named, confirmed Friday morning that Murphy was in the running but later would not say if he had been called back for a follow-up interview.

Murphy, 38, has worked for the city of Alhambra for 12 years. He was an assistant to the city manager there before he was promoted to the top post in 1983.

The City Council’s selection of the new manager, who will replace retiring City Manager Robert L. Wynn, started smoothly but turned turbulent when former city Utilities Director Robert J. Dixon was arrested on embezzlement charges last week.

Dixon had been considered by many fellow employees to be the logical choice for the job, and sources said he beat out dozens of applicants nationwide to make the list of nine finalists.

Two other candidates withdrew their applications last week for personal reasons, dwindling the pool of finalists from nine to six, officials said.

Wynn, the city manager for the past 20 years, announced his retirement in June and had planned to leave the post in December. He has agreed to stay on the job, however, earning $70 an hour, until the new manager is picked.

A search firm, San Francisco-based Ralph Anderson and Associates, accepted applications for the post in October and narrowed the list to nine finalists in late November. The council has been interviewing those nine candidates since early January.

At least one of the remaining candidates is believed to be from out of state. Former county Chief Administrative Officer Larry Parrish, who was said to have lobbied strongly for the job, is no longer in the running.