And then there were four

Two more finalists drop out of the running to be the next Palm Beach County administrator.

The field for Palm Beach County administrator has shrunk to four.

The two out-of-state candidates, Cornell Wesley and Eric Johnson, have pulled out since a task force named them finalists last month.

Wesley withdrew on May 23, citing a conflicting engagement in his current job as director of the Department of Innovation and Economic Opportunity for Birmingham, Ala., that prohibited him attending candidate interviews here on June 16 and 17.

Johnson, city manager in Norcross, Ga., withdrew Tuesday without citing a reason.

That leaves County Clerk and Comptroller Joe Abruzzo, Deputy County Administrator Patrick Rutter, Assistant County Administrator Isami Ayala-Collazo and the county’s director of strategic planning and performance management, Keith Clinkscales.

The search has been rife with speculation that it is designed to favor Abruzzo, who would be leaving a $212,000-a-year job as an elected official for the $400,000-plus job overseeing 6,500 county employees and a $9 billion budget. 

County commissioners on May 20 blocked the task force from conducting the first round of public interviews, scheduled for May 23. 

The task force planned to interview its six finalists but asked commissioners for permission to forward all six names if necessary, rather than five as the commission initially sought. Commissioners decided it would be more efficient to skip the interviews, accept all six finalists and conduct one set of interviews in June.

A seventh candidate selected by the task force, Adrian Jones, had already dropped out.

Over two hours of discussion Tuesday, commissioners patched together the ground rules for those interviews to decide who will replace Verdenia Baker, who retired at the end of May after nearly 10 years as administrator.

• On June 16, commissioners will conduct private interviews in their offices with each of the candidates. At staff’s recommendation, they agreed to have at least one other person in the room for those interviews.

• That night, June 16, the public will have a chance to pose questions to the candidates at a panel discussion at 5:30 pm at the convention center.

• The next day, commissioners will conduct public interviews of the candidates in commission chambers before debating their merits and making a decision.

Submit questions for the June 16 public forum here.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to add information about the public candidate’s forum on June 16.