Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal—accompanied by councilmembers Lena Gonzales, Stacey Mungo, and Suzie Price—led a successful effort at last night’s council meeting to expand the Council’s role in the choosing of the City’s next Assistant Manager.
The move comes after former-Assistant City Manager Suzanne Frick announced in June of this year that she would be departing Long Beach to take on the role of City Administrator for the City of Ketchum, Idaho. Since then, Assistant to the City Manager Jyl Marden has been serving as Interim Assistant City Manager as appointed by City Manager Pat West.
“We wanted to make a statement to emphasize the importance of getting the right candidate for Assistant City Manager,” Lowenthal said. “Through this item, we wanted to reaffirm our desire to work closely with the City Manager as a Council.”
The item was succinct, noting a list of characteristics they wish to see in person who will eventually fill the role—“he/she will be honest, fair, respectful, ethical, professional and possess good character and integrity”—while also asking that West provide them ample time to review candidates before the confirmation vote.
Additionally, two more requests were made. One was that a closed session meeting be created in order for the West to share his top candidate choices with the Council in private. The other, more philosophical, included the Council’s “noted value” of having the Assistant City Manager live in Long Beach, though such a requirement is not legally binding.
4th District Councilmember Patrick O’Donnell, however, was not too clear on the item’s overall point, noting that “what I gather from this conversation is that you want to them to live in Long Beach—the rest is pretty much common sense.”
“To be honest, I don’t know what’s different in this item than what [the City Manager will already] be looking for,” O’Donnell said.
The backers of the item, however, insisted that the choosing of the position requires a transparent discussion—despite so-called givens as to how the person is chosen for the position.
“Certainly important are the stakeholders of Long Beach,” Lowenthal said. “Though the Council has few position which we have direct input over—this being one of them—the stakeholders deserve a dynamic and ethical and approachable Assistant City Manager who will help us reach our full potential as a city.”
The motion was carried unanimously. View the full item below.
Selection & Confirmation of City of Long Beach Assistant City Manager