Back to square one

Now that Police Chief Bernard Melekian has taken himself out of the running, Pasadena is once again looking for a city manager.

Melekian, who has been chief of police since 1995 and took over as acting city manager in January for retiring city executive Cynthia Kurtz, appeared to be the top candidate for the post. However, late Monday night Melekian informed the Weekly that he would not be seeking the position and instead would serve as president of the California Police Chiefs Association beginning  in March.

For anyone with knowledge of the city’s past 20 years, it wouldn’t require precognitive powers to predict that former Mayor Rick Cole’s name would come up once news broke that the city manager’s job was open once again.

Cole, who is currently city manager in Ventura, served on the Pasadena council from 1983 to 1995 as both councilman and mayor before the mayor’s post was an elected position. During his time on the council, Cole helped spearhead redevelopment efforts in Old Pasadena and was a major architect of the city’s 10-year General Plan, a sort of blueprint for the community’s overall development.

Some insist that Cole has always somehow secretly had the inside track for the Pasadena city manager’s position. But Cole insists he is not applying for the job.

“Although I love Pasadena and continue to care deeply about its future, I want to continue the innovative things we're doing in Ventura,” Cole said.

The city manager’s job in Pasadena is comparable to that of a ship’s captain, in this case one that oversees operations in 11 departments, including the Police and Fire departments, 2,300 employees and an annual operating budget of more than $500 million.

With Melekian and Cole both declaring themselves unavailable, it’s all but guaranteed that the next city manager will be from outside the city.

“Because there have been so many great opportunities in recent years, I think that most of the potential candidates that Pasadena would want to attract are happy where they are — and that means that for Pasadena to find the best person for the job they are going to have to be very aggressive in recruiting the kind of people they want,” Cole said.

On Friday, the Weekly obtained a copy of the brochure created by the headhunting firm Bob Murray and Associates advertising the Pasadena position, which carries a salary of more than $200,000 a year.

“The recruitment effort goes into high gear at this point,” said Mayor Bill Bogaard. “We have completed our evaluation of the city’s challenges and needs. We have thought about the strengths and characteristics of what Pasadena needs with the help of public input.”

Melekian had his share of supporters, but in the end, he said, “I just could not pass up this opportunity” with the police chiefs association.

Melekian’s replacement should be in place by summer, but according to Cole the city’s search may be limited even without Melekian, who he believes scared a few candidates away because of his insider status at City Hall.

“There are about 10 great city manager jobs open in California right now,” Cole said. “It’s a problem demographic. The reason all these jobs are open is the young people who came into city government from the 1960s and ’70s. I mean the young idealistic people who took Kennedy’s advice seriously when he said, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you,’ are retiring earlier than they would in the private sector.”

That, coupled with other qualified candidates staying in one place for a variety of reasons, among them kids getting older and career demands of spouses, could make the search for an outstanding candidate even more difficult, Cole said.

“I don’t think Pasadena has an awareness of how challenging the market is. All things being equal, I think an internal candidate like Barney Melekian would have scared off what few qualified candidates there are out there. I think Pasadena has two choices: Get either incredibly lucky or really be specific in what they want for a city manager.

“They can take someone with relatively little potential or a 40-year-old city manager that has never run a city with 140,000 people, an electric utility, a 100,000-seat stadium and a major research university, or they can identify the kind of city manager that Pasadena needs. Be very specific. Usually they say we want everything. The rude shock is there are very few people who have all of those strengths. The people who have them are not out looking for jobs. They have had 10 recruiters contact them this month, and if they are interested, they have had every opportunity to go where they want.”

It was not immediately known how many candidates have applied for the Pasadena position. Currently, Bob Murray is also conducting city manager searches for the cities of Huntington Beach, Carlsbad, Palo Alto and Salinas.

“All of those places are medium-size cities with their own particular appeal. That’s compounded by the fact that anyone who was looking for a new job probably already has it, because there have been so many great opportunities. There are more opportunities for city managers than there are city managers,” Cole said.

Whoever gets the job will have more to deal with than merely an aging football stadium and a New Year’s Day parade. Many minority residents in Northwest Pasadena feel left out of decisions involving the billion-dollar infrastructure in Old Pasadena, the city is quickly reaching the cap on development outlined in the general plan, local public schools are struggling with declining enrollments and school district officials are turning to the city for financial help as the city struggles with youth violence.

Pasadena Chamber of Commerce CEO and President Paul Little, a former councilman, said the next city manager will have to learn quickly.

“For anybody coming in, even somebody who might have had experience in the past, there is going to be a steep learning curve,” said Little. “The population has changed significantly over the past 10 years. The issues have evolved substantially, and I think the expectations of the community as a whole may have evolved as well. I think there is perhaps some value to an individual with experience in Pasadena. The best resume that comes across the table isn’t going to be successful if they can’t adjust to the way things are done in the city and fairly quickly win the confidence of the staff.”

But there are other issues, including growing Latino and Armenian populations with unmet needs, and a plunging real estate market that could severely impact the city’s economy, especially as many of the expensive condos that are being built now become less of an option for even people with money.

“Pasadena may think lots of people will flock here, but I think the reality in today’s market Pasadena needs to hustle like everybody else,” Cole said. “There are 10 amazing jobs out there, and that’s just this month.”