DURHAM - The three finalists to replace Patrick Baker as city manager are actively seeking jobs in other cities as City Council deliberations enter a third week.

The council members met Monday for several hours in closed session -- much of it in Mayor Bill Bell's office and not their regular meeting room -- to discuss the search. They continued the meeting until 9:30 a.m. Friday.

Bell said the meeting adjourned to his office because conference calls work better there. Asked to whom the council was speaking, he declined to say.

"It's part of the continuing discussion we're having, given the circumstances," he said.

Those circumstances apparently include a City Council that is unable to reach consensus on one of the three finalists. Bell himself has mentioned the prospect of talking to candidates other than the finalists, perhaps two who declined to be publicly named as finalists for fear of upsetting their current employers.

Meanwhile, finalist Randy Oliver, most recently the city manager of Peoria, Ill., said he's a finalist for another job, though he wouldn't say where. George Kolb, former manager of Wichita, Kan., also is on the job hunt, though he hasn't made another finalist slate yet.

And Pat Salerno, former manager of Sunrise, Fla., is a finalist for Kolb's old job in Wichita. He met with council members and the public there Monday.

Oliver said he's not concerned that the Durham council is taking awhile. He and Kolb both said they haven't spoken with council members since their visit to Durham in late April. They've received updates from Jim Mercer, the consultant hired to help Durham in its search. Salerno could not be reached for comment.

"Sometimes, for whatever reason, it takes some time for there to be a consensus," Oliver said.

"As a city manager, you want there to be overwhelming consensus from the start."

Kolb said much the same, noting that he once waited almost a year as a finalist for an assistant city manager job before finally dropping out.

The Wichita Eagle reported that Salerno faced questions about his being secretive with the public and the city leaders in Sunrise. Salerno pointed out, as he did in Durham when questioned about similar issues, that he served in Sunrise for 18 years, far longer than the average city manager.

But Wichita council members still are going to speak with a few more candidates, and none is ready to name Salerno to the top post, the Eagle reported.

"I'm not ready to hire him by any means," Wichita council member Jim Skelton told the paper. "I think we've got to talk to him some more. We do have more candidates to talk to."

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