St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman has eliminated all four known finalists for the vacant chief of police position.

Kriseman apparently has made his decision and his choice is not far away.

On Tuesday, Kriseman is scheduled to announce Clearwater Police Chief Tony Holloway as the department's new head.

The process Kriseman implemented for selecting a new chief greatly influenced his decision.

"Each finalist had their strengths, but ultimately none fit the criteria to successfully meet the needs of our department and our community," Kriseman said. "This process brought me clarity and led me to realize what we needed most: someone familiar with us, but not of us.

"That someone is Chief Anthony Holloway."

Mayor Kriseman will be joined on Tuesday by Interim Chief Dave DeKay, Incoming Chief Holloway and Council of Neighborhood Associations President Lisa Wheeler-Brown.

Clearwater City Manager Bill Horne said he wasn't surprised to hear the chief was taking on this new challenge.

"I hate to see him go, I mean, you got a jewel, you want to keep it but I understand professionally it’s a step up for him in terms of a much larger community, a community that at least publicly has shown to have challenges,” Horne said.

Horne said the chief is hands-on and ready to lead a larger police force.

"I think the issue for him is how is he going to re-frame how the organization is going to be restructured to best use his talents and skills to keep him in touch,” he said. “I think he will clearly want to be in touch with the workforce and what’s happening out there on the street. So, the fact that it’s a large organization won’t necessarily hinder him wanting to have the touch and feel that he would like to have."

During the weekend, Kriseman spokesman Ben Kirby said the mayor "has a compelling case to make for going out to find the right leader for this moment in time" and "no one emerged from the process as the right leader to resolve the unique challenges facing the department."

Assistant Chief Melanie Bevan, a 25-year-plus veteran of the department, learned Saturday she didn't get the job. The other three finalists also were told in recent days that they had been eliminated.

Holloway, 52, rose through the ranks in Clearwater and became the city's first African-American captain before leaving in 2007 to lead a department in Massachusetts. He returned in 2010 to take over the department's leadership.

Holloway is expected to start in St. Petersburg in August. As for the new Clearwater police chief, Horne said he hasn't received the chief's letter of resignation yet, but the city says it will work quickly to fill the position.

St. Petersburg has been without a permanent chief since January, when Chuck Harmon retired after 12 years.