Interim City Manager Harvey Robinson will keep working, although in a limited role, at his job in the wake of this week’s Port Arthur City Council meeting vote to reopen the search for his replacement.

Robinson, who accepted the interim position in December 2017 with the understanding a replacement would be named within six months, said he would report Monday but only for the short term and only in a limited schedule. He had previously insisted he would go back into retirement, from where the city called him to City Hall in 2017.

“I can’t leave the city like this,” said Robinson, a former assistant city manager and a career city employee.

Councilmembers this week voted to not appoint any of four finalists in their search for a new city manager, instead opting to widen their search for additional candidates.

The council split — 3, 3 and 1 — among themselves in a Tuesday executive session in seeking to hire a new city manager. Three councilmembers — Harold Doucet, Raymond Scott and Kaprina Frank — said the council narrowly choose a replacement for Robinson using an agreed-upon points system; the other four — including Mayor Derrick Freeman and Councilwoman Charlotte Moses — said the points system was not binding for a vote.

Freeman said that Doucet, Scott and Frank left the executive session early while the other four remained and agreed to continue the search. Doucet said Friday that wasn’t so: It was 5:30, time for the regular City Council meeting to begin.

“We had finished,” he said of his departure from the executive session meeting, which was held on the fourth floor of City Hall. The regular meetings take place in the City Council Chambers on the fifth floor.

“Harold is right on point,” said Councilwoman Kaprina Frank. She said that her understanding — it was clear to her, she said — was that the point system was agreed upon and would determine the council’s selection for city manager.

Frank said she supported Tohme for the job, but would not have been angry if she were simply outvoted.

“I don’t have a problem if they wanted someone else,” she said. “Just follow the process.”

While some councilmembers said they would include applicants among the original 18 who applied for the second, wider search, Doucet said that fails “to pass the commonsense test.”

“Human Resources should be sending (the original 18) applicants saying the council chose not to select them,” he said.

He said he would not consider applicants who have already been passed over.

The city is advertising for additional candidates through April 17.