The Peachtree City Council will hold a special meeting Saturday at noon to wade through applicants for the vacant police chief position, Mayor Harold Logsdon confirmed Tuesday.

The action will likely occur in closed session outside of the public’s view, which is allowed by Georgia law in this instance. Should council have any vote on the matter, however, that must occur in open session, the law states.

A total of 35 people applied for the job and a committee has already interviewed some of the candidates. That four-person committee included City Manager Bernie McMullen, City Attorney Ted Meeker, City Clerk Betsy Tyler and LaGrange Police Chief Louis M. Dekmar.

Dekmar’s department, like Peachtree City’s, has achieved national accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc.

Saturday will be the first time that council gets a crack at the remaining candidates, Logsdon said. Per Georgia law, Council is allowed to deliberate upon the hiring of personnel in a closed session, but any vote to hire an employee must occur in open session.

At Saturday’s meeting, council “will at least pare it down to 2,” applicants, Logsdon said.

“We’re just working through the process now,” Logsdon said.

Former Police Chief James Murray resigned in November after the city manager presented him with recorded logs of data from his computer that showed steamy sex-related correspondences. City officials have said that Murray offered no explanation at the time for the questionable material.

The material was discovered using keylogging software which records keystrokes on an individual’s computer, officials confirmed. Ironically, Murray and his department have received national recognition for its online child predator investigations, which arrested persons for using the Internet to arrange sexual trysts with an underage girl who actually turned out to be an adult undercover police officer.

Murray’s attorney, former city attorney Rick Lindsey, has said the chat room logs were linked to ongoing investigations of illegal activities. Lindsey said Murray decided to resign, in part, because of a lack of “respect and support of his superiors.”