Search for New City Manager Begins

The city has two months to find a new city manager, but that probably won't be enough time to replace Scott Ochoa after he Tuesday night, city leaders said.

Ochoa's last day will be January 2, but Mayor Mary Ann Lutz said Wednesday that the selection process for his replacement will likely take longer than that.

"I don't think there's going to be enough time unfortunately," Lutz said. "It's a good time to be doing the search but I don't think we can pull off the panels and all of that through the holidays."

Councilman Tom Adams said Wednesday that the holidays could complicate the recruitment process and may require the council to push the search into the new year.

"It may not be the best of time to go out and do any recruiting," Adams said. "We might get some better candidates by waiting. Hopefully we won't rush this. I think quality is probably more important than speed."

If the process does carry on past Ochoa's resignation date, the council may have to appoint an interim city manager. The city's assistant city manager Mark Alvarado would seem a likely candidate, but Lutz said no decision has been made yet. Lutz said she anticipates that Alvarado will apply for the full position.

Adams said he wasn't aware of anyone in-house who has been groomed to take over as city manager.

"No one comes to mind off the top of my head but you never know, once you open up recruiting, who might throw their hat in the ring," he said.

The responsibility of developing the hiring process will actually fall on Ochoa himself, as the City Council directed city staff on Tuesday to develop a plan on how to move forward. The plan should identify executive recruitment firms and establish a timeline that the council should follow, Lutz said.

"We need to have not just a list of search firms but actual proposals so that we can expeditiously move forward," Lutz said.

Whatever the process looks like, Lutz said it will definitely have a community component with panels that obtain input from residents--much like the city did in its .

Adams congratulated Ochoa on his new position and said the biggest downside to finding a new city manager is that the city will inevitably have to take the time to get the replacement up to speed. Ochoa has worked for Monrovia since 1993 and has held the city manager job since 2004.

"Scott's been there a long time. He knows all the players in town and has done a very good job in moving the community forward and that's hard to replace," Adams said.

Though Ochoa has been at the helm for seven years, Adams said the good news was that much of the city's direction was established before Ochoa took over. In fact, the path the city has followed over the last two decades was begun in the 1990s by former Monrovia City Manager Jim Starbird, the same person Ochoa is replacing in Glendale.

"That plan is still in place today," Adams said. "It's what you see on Huntington Drive, it's what you see downtown. I think a good replacement for Scott will continue along that path and also bring a fresh set of eyes."

Lutz said Ochoa will leave a legacy "of consistent economic growth with an emphasis on community strength, community communication and community development."

"It's sad that he's leaving, it's sad that he won't be with us, but by the same token its an amazing opportunity for him," she said. "It says a lot about him. It says a lot about our community."