City Manager Search Stumbles Again as a Finalist Withdraws

SANTA PAULA —  After a 10-month search, Santa Paula is still looking for a new city manager after one of its two final candidates vying for the job pulled out of the running Monday.

The City Council held a 45-minute closed session Monday night and determined that it will pull in another candidate from the other five semifinalists.

“Possibly in two weeks we’ll know,” Mayor Robin Sullivan said. “We’re being very, very, very careful. We want the right match.”

The candidate who withdrew did so for family considerations, said Sullivan. The city has declined to identify the applicants for the job.

The finalists were winnowed from 52 applicants who expressed interest in the position, which pays $90,000 to $100,000 a year, said interim City Manager Murray Warden.

This is the second time the Santa Clara Valley community has conducted a search for someone to fill the post since former City Manager Arnold Dowdy left to take a job with the county in June.

In January, the top three candidates the council had selected all pulled out of the running for various reasons, Warden said.

The successful candidate will come to a financially strapped agricultural community of nearly 27,000 that is desperately seeking more land to develop and bring in more revenue.