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City Manager Resigns : Blair Praised; Impact of Departure Uncertain

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Times Staff Writer

Politicians must worry about staying in the good graces of more than half the voting public, but as San Diego’s city manager, Ray Blair knew that his job depended on the attitudes of only nine people --the eight City Council members and the mayor.

For seven years, Blair handled that task with aplomb, impressing council members and others with his management expertise, his unswerving and infectious confidence that even the most thorny city problems had solutions, and, perhaps most importantly, his political acumen in dealing with the constantly shifting group of nine politicians who were his bosses.

“Ray’s toughest job was trying to keep nine prima donnas happy at the same time, and that’s not easy,” said former Councilman Fred Schnaubelt. “His genius was in keeping people satisfied even when he disagreed with them. That support gave him the foundation to be a very, very effective city manager.”

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Politicians, civic leaders and others who have worked with Blair are virtually unanimous in their praise for the 59-year-old city manager, who announced Monday that he intends to retire next month.

U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), who as mayor in the 1970s formed a close working relationship with Blair, described him as “a superb city manager with rare courage and intellectual honesty.” San Diego Chamber of Commerce President Lee Grissom called Blair a “tremendous talent scout” who attracted bright, talented professionals to city government and then “was always accessible, but didn’t intrude in the day-to-day function of their departments.”

“He was the proverbial strong hand on the helm,” said county Supervisor Susan Golding, a former councilwoman.

However, even Blair’s strongest proponents concede that measuring the impact of his impending departure from City Hall is difficult. That difficulty stems partly from the often amorphous manner in which ideas emerge and things get done at City Hall, but also from Blair’s willingness to allow the more public relations-conscious council members to take credit for programs or policies that originated in the city manager’s office.

“It’s difficult to pinpoint things in the way of accomplishments, because if Ray had good ideas, they usually were usurped by the mayor or council members,” said one former council member, who asked not to be identified. “But he kept things running smoothly and kept the rancor to a minimum. That’s a big accomplishment in itself.”

A native San Diegan, Blair joined the city in 1969 as a deputy city manager. Seven years later, he was promoted to assistant city manager.

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When City Manager High McKinley resigned in May, 1978, Blair, with the unanimous backing of the council, ascended to one of the city’s most powerful jobs. One month later, California voters approved Proposition 13, the massive property tax reduction initiative that created major fiscal problems for San Diego and most other cities throughout the state. Blair’s skillful response to the crisis--eschewing simplistic across-the-board budget cuts in favor of a considerably more difficult prioritizing of city services--illustrated the “can-do” approach that colleagues say Blair brought to most tasks.

“Across the board cuts . . . are relatively easy,” said Larry Haden, the former director of the city’s Financial Management Department. “(Blair’s) way was a more painful meeting after meeting after meeting process of priority setting. Things with a high enough priority stayed, and things lower on the ladder went. Those aren’t pleasant choices.”

Schnaubelt recalled that Blair appeared to regard the problems posed by Proposition 13 “not with any fear or reticence, but rather as an exciting challenge.”

“What impressed me was that Ray . . . didn’t run around like a chicken with his head cut off saying these cuts couldn’t be made, as some others did,” said Schnaubelt, whose Republican-cum-Libertarian philosophy made him the most fiscally conservative member of the council during his 1977-1981 tenure. “His attitude was, ‘We can do it and we will do it.’ ”

In one budget-cutting move, Blair slashed at the City Hall bureaucracy by eliminating a layer of positions known as “assistants to city department heads.” Another move, inspired by Blair’s aides, revamped the city’s Park and Recreation Department by eliminating divisions and redrawing responsibilities based on geographic zones --a change that saved the city $400,000 in its first year, according to one of Blair’s deputies.

Through such tactics, Blair’s management team was able to provide vital city services to a burgeoning population with only modest increases in the number of city employees. Blair’s innovations at juggling positions earned him praise in a recent University of Chicago study showing that San Diego had 29% fewer employees than the average for mid-sized and large cities.

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Although acquaintances describe Blair as a warm person with a good sense of humor, in the council chambers his pose was almost regally aloof. Sitting next to the mayor on an elevated rostrum, Blair characteristically would peer expressionless over his reading glasses during council debates, generally speaking only when asked to explain a policy or, occasionally, to diplomatically correct council members’ misunderstandings. When he did speak, Blair did so in a slow, deliberate, calculated manner--even when answering the most pointed questions.

“He’s a master at walking that middle line,” one councilman said.

Blair’s deferential manner toward the council members also could be seen in the way he used his charter powers to enhance his responsiveness to their wishes--and thereby solidified his support on the council. Because San Diego is run under the city manager form of government, council members with problems in their districts--potholes or a need for a neighborhood park, for example --cannot directly call city department heads to demand action, but instead must contact the city manager’s office for assistance.

Most council members who served during Blair’s tenure recall numerous instances in which one telephone call to Blair, and his subsequent intervention in the matter, helped to cut through red tape.

Councilman Mike Gotch, for example, remembered how Blair ended a year and a half of frustration for him about having a traffic light installed at a Pacific Beach intersection. After explaining to Blair that normal requests were not getting results, Gotch told the city manager that he hoped the light could be installed by July 4. The light was installed July 3.

“I called him up once about a problem I was having and before I even finished, he said, ‘It will be taken care of,’ ” Golding recalled.

That reservoir of good will with the council paid dividends in early 1984 when Blair faced one of the stickiest crises of his career.

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In February, 1984, Fire Chief Earle Roberts quit in a huff after confiding in at least two council members that he believed that a romantic relationship between Blair and Sue Williams, a deputy city manager, had clouded Blair’s judgment.

The council called Blair into an executive session at which he was asked about whether he was having an affair with Williams. Blair’s responses neither confirmed nor denied the allegations, council members said later.

With humility but firmness, Blair also deftly handled other questions raised by the council, which took the opportunity to probe other personnel decisions by the city manager that, under a strict interpretation of the City Charter, may have been none of their business.

When Blair left the closed session, one of the council members turned to Mayor Roger Hedgecock and said, “With all due respect, Roger, there goes the master politician.”

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