The City of Austin has spent nearly a year trying to find a new police chief. It's spent thousands of dollars on a consulting firm in the process. But did the city get its money's worth?

The city made the announcement early this month that there are nine finalists in its search for Austin's new police chief.

KVUE News has uncovered information that wasn't included on some of their resumes.

"I think that anytime you have a long tenure of public questions, there are going to be some things that raise questions," said Gene Acuna, city spokesperson.

California Highway Patrol Chief Art Acevedo is one of the nine finalists. He recently settled an employee discrimination suit that had been filed against him.

According to Acevedo and the employee's attorney, the terms of the settlement are bound by a confidentiality agreement.

In a separate legal action, court documents show Acevedo is suing his employer the California Highway Patrol. In those documents, Acevedo alleges retaliation and discrimination after he applied for the California Highway Patrol's top job, and was turned down.

"This is a very public process and anything like that is going to come out at some point," said Acuna.

Another candidate, Police Chief Melvin Turner of Michigan's Sumpter Township resigned his position at the end of March. In a telephone conversation with Turner, he said he resigned because salary increases were not honored and that it was the right time for him to step down.

Peggy Morgan, a member of the Sumpter Township board, told KVUE News that the board was considering firing him. She said Turner wasn't a good fit for such a small department.

Acuna says the city knew about his resignation.

"That's not something we're going to dismiss on our own - we'll continue to ask questions," Acuna said.

The city says the consulting firm it paid $18,500 did its job, which was providing the city with a diverse pool of applicants.

Five of the nine candidates are minorities.

The city will now take a closer look at specifics. Like Acevedo's ongoing lawsuit against the California Highway Patrol, where in court documents he claims to have suffered "emotional pain, suffering and mental anguish."

When Acuna was asked if that sounds like a good candidate, he said, "Well I don't know the specifics of this particular lawsuit and I know that details were shared of it and it's something that will be asked of this candidate."

Acevedo told KVUE News by telephone from California he's still a good chief, and could be for the city of Austin.

The city panel said Wednesday that it has made their recommendations to the Austin city manager.