City Council members have narrowed the search for a new city manager to two candidates.

The two finalists for the city manager’s position are John Longoria and Tom Ginter.

Longoria, a native of Beeville, has worked as a governmental relations representative for the Lower Colorado River Authority in Austin since 2002.

Ginter is with the City of Port Aransas and has been the interim director of public works there since April of this year.

The council took no action Tuesday night after spending more than an hour and a half in executive session discussing the appointment of a new city manager.

City Attorney Frank Warner said after the meeting that the council definitely has weened the list of candidates down to the final two.

Also, council members have conducted interviews of at least three.

The council has scheduled a special meeting for 11 a.m. Friday to come up with a final selection in the process.

Fifty-four applicants had applied for the position by the deadline earlier this month and council members were able to bring down the list of finalists to five after reviewing the applications and résumés.

The council set an Oct. 6 deadline for receiving applications and council members originally had intended to have a list of finalists by Oct. 9. But that deadline had to be extended to Oct. 13 because of the large number of applicants.

Interviews were conducted last Friday and Interim City Manager Joe B. Montez said initially that he hoped the council would be prepared to negotiate salary and benefits with someone by this Monday.

However, the Monday session was canceled and the executive session held Tuesday evening was added to that agenda.

In other business, the council voted to:

— Approve street closing requests for Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church and St. Philip’s Episcopal School for fall and Halloween events.

— Reappoint Adolfo Loya and Johnny Padilla to the City Housing Standards Board and seek another appointee to fill a third vacancy.

— Reappoint Gilbert Herrera and Luis “Tiny” Longoria Jr. to the City’s Park and Recreation Commission. The council will have to appoint a new member to replace Richard Rodriguez.

— Authorize the interim city manager to solicit proposals for group health insurance for city employees.

— Take no action on a request from a property owner to delay the demolition of her property at 710 S. Madison St.

— Cast all 500 of the city’s votes for a member of the Bee County Appraisal District for the city’s nominee, John Salinas.

— Authorize the interim city manager to schedule a sale of surplus city property.