Now, city officials predict Petersburg will have $2 million in savings left over from the fiscal year that ended June 30.

Myers and then-Councilman Sam Parham, who is now mayor, were pilloried in public meetings last year by open government advocates who took issue with the firm’s price tag and the pair’s efforts to force the contract to a vote during a special meeting not all council members could attend.

The council had already slashed pay for emergency workers, cut funding to public schools and eliminated programs for children to plug a $12 million hole in the budget and were unsure how to pay down $18.8 million in past-due bills. Lawsuits over the debts were mounting.

Residents were talking openly about the prospect of reversion, whereby the city would relinquish its charter and dissolve into one or more counties.

“We had to take a chance,” Parham said, of hiring the Bobb Group. “We were at a point where all the banks were laughing at us, saying, ‘We’re not going to pay you a dime; you couldn’t afford to mail an envelope.’”

That chance paid off, Parham and Myers said Wednesday, nearly a year after Bobb — a former Richmond city manager — and his troops descended on Petersburg City Hall. The firm’s contract ended last month.