He was in, he was out and now Robert C. Bobb apparently is in again in Petersburg.

The Petersburg City Council is to meet Thursday evening to hire Mr. Bobb to deal with the city’s financial woes, just two days after sending him packing by rejecting a $350,000 contract with his consulting company to help the beleaguered city.

Sources told the Free Press in advance of the meeting that City Councilman John Hart, who initially supported hiring the Robert Bobb Group and then rejected the idea at a City Council meeting on Tuesday, is once again ready to support Mr. Bobb’s hiring — ensuring a four-member majority.

Bringing on Mr. Bobb, a government veteran who served 11 years as Richmond’s city manager, would represent a setback for Petersburg’s interim City Manager Dironna Moore Belton, who has been keeping the financially troubled city government afloat since taking over in March.

Ms. Belton took the reins after the previous city manager was fired.

While the council has yet to clarify the future relationship between Ms. Belton and Mr. Bobb, it is clear to most observers that her authority to make decisions would be undercut.

Tuesday night, City Council failed to hire Mr. Bobb when the members deadlocked 3-3, with one abstention, on awarding his group a $350,000 contract essentially to take charge of financial affairs of the struggling city.

The deadlock came just a week after the council voted 5-1 in a special session, with one member absent, to hire the consulting firm to help straighten out the city’s finances.

But by Tuesday, Councilman Darrin Hill, who supported the hiring last week but who is up for re-election Nov. 8 in a contested race, pulled back.

He added his “no” vote to those of Mr. Hart, who also had supported the hiring but later wanted more time to consider the matter, and Treska Wilson-Smith, who opposed it from the start. Outgoing Councilman David Coleman abstained.

The vote represented a snub to Mr. Bobb and to the council’s leadership, Mayor W. Howard Myers and Vice Mayor Samuel Parham, who had pushed for Mr. Bobb’s hiring. Outgoing Councilman Brian Moore, a former mayor, was the third supporter.

During Thursday’s special meeting, the council separately is to consider hiring an accounting firm to conduct a forensic audit, which could cost at least $190,000.

Where the money will come from to pay Mr. Bobb’s company or the outside auditor remains uncertain.

The moves come as the cash-strapped city continues to struggle to pay its bills to government agencies and private entities.

According to a Sept. 30 city report, Petersburg has a backlog of about $11 million in unpaid bills, down from $14.5 million that the city owed June 30, but a $1.7 million increase from the $9.3 million owed as of Aug. 30.

And there are plenty of other challenges. The city’s Fire Department has had to borrow a truck from Colonial Heights for one fire station because so much of its equipment has broken down. One repaired truck is still stuck in a private shop because the city has not paid the full cost for repairs.

Meanwhile, the city is heading back to court at the end of this month to have the Petersburg Circuit Court reconsider a judge’s decision to create a receivership for payments to the South Central Wastewater Authority, which treats the city’s waste and which had gone unpaid since May.

Judge Joseph M. Teefy Jr., who ordered the receivership, has agreed to hear the city’s arguments that the creation of the receivership would trigger a default on the city’s bonds, ensuring that they would fall deeper into “junk” status. Language in the city’s bond documents creates a default if the city enters receivership.