S.D. Manager Blair Resigns, Citing Illness

Citing high blood pressure and the continuing stress of his job, San Diego City Manager Ray Blair announced Monday that he will resign June 27.

The announcement came a week after the executive board of the Police Officers Assn. demanded his resignation, saying he was insensitive to police safety problems. But Blair denied Monday that pressure from the association led to his resignation.

“I’ve never run from a fight, and I am not running from any kind of fight with a labor organization,” Blair, San Diego’s city manager for seven years, told reporters.

But he said many other pressures--from the “turmoil” at City Hall this winter when Mayor Roger Hedgecock was on trial on felony perjury and conspiracy charges and an apparent trend of “challenging the authority of the manager” at every turn--had convinced him to leave his $83,000-a-year-job.

“For my own peace of mind, tranquility and health, it’s time for someone else to sit in my chair and do my job,” Blair, 59, said. “I’m concerned that I might put myself in a health situation that’s going to kill me.”

Blair suffered a near-fatal aneurysm in April, 1984, and although he has recovered well, he said that his blood pressure has continued to climb since he returned to work last fall.

Hedgecock expressed regret over Blair’s resignation and announced that the city would immediately begin a nationwide search for his replacement.

Under the City Charter, a new city manager must be hired within 60 days of a vacancy. The job is the top non-elective post at City Hall. The mayor and City Council set policy but all administrative authority is vested in the manager--from park management to personnel to the fiscal year’s proposed $534-million budget.

Lockwood to Fill In

Assistant City Manager John Lockwood, who is second to Blair in city administration, said he is not a candidate for Blair’s job. At 54, with 36 years of service at the city, Lockwood said he plans to retire later this year. But Lockwood has agreed to serve as acting manager, as he did during the months Blair was hospitalized last year, if Blair leaves before a full-time manager is chosen, Hedgecock said.

In a closed session after Blair’s announcement, the council adopted an unusual procedure for selecting a new city manager.

Spurning their usual five-vote majority rule, council members agreed to a Hedgecock proposal that the successful candidate for such an important job must receive unanimous support--all nine votes. The council wanted “to give the new manager as strong a position as possible,” Hedgecock said.

Asked if the council could overcome its usual political jockeying for this task--especially in a year when four of the eight council members are seeking reelection--Hedgecock and his council colleagues vowed that they could.

“Each City Council member is committed to leaving his politics at the door” of the closed selection sessions, Hedgecock said.

Councilman Bill Cleator, who often opposes Hedgecock, agreed. During the city’s usual selection process for public commissions, “We’re there having our own little fights,” fighting for appointments from each council district, Cleator said.

But “on this, we’ll throw all that in the garbage can and look at what is best for the overall city. And our council will get together and make that decision,” he added.

‘A Whole New Team’

It is critical that they do so, Hedgecock said, because “whoever he or she is going to be would have the opportunity to have a whole new management team.” Most of the top staff members in the city manager’s office have reached retirement age, he noted.

Blair’s announcement took most of City Hall by surprise. Only the mayor, several of his aides and two of the eight City Council members had been warned late last week or earlier Monday of Blair’s plan to resign.

The council was just starting its usual Monday afternoon agenda of zoning appeals and proposed ordinances when Blair began to speak.

He told of his love for San Diego and the rewards of his job. And then, in his usual quiet, deliberate voice, he delivered his punch line.

“I think it’s time for you to look for someone else as city manager,” he said.

There was a gasp in the council chambers and shocked aides from various council offices reportedly crowded into the narrow aisle behind the council dais to get a better view.

Immediately after his speech, Blair refused all public comment on why he was leaving and hurried off to explain his departure to council members in more detail.

After about an hour, Blair emerged to explain to a dozen reporters that he was leaving because of his health.

Will Finish Budget Work

In spite of medication and brisk walks five days a week, his blood pressure had continued to climb, Blair said. He promised to complete his commitments this fiscal year--finishing up negotiations with the city’s unions and staying through the final day of budget hearings on June 25--and then leave June 27.

He said he will probably seek a job in the private sector because he does not consider himself retired and, as a man who dislikes taking vacations, he still wants to work.

Blair will be leaving his post the same day Deputy City Manager Sue Williams, who is also resigning, will be leaving hers.

Last year, the two were accused of having an affair that influenced personnel decisions, but after several weeks of council scrutiny, Hedgecock declared that there was no wrongdoing. Both Williams and Blair have refused to confirm or deny any relationship.

Williams on Monday listened intently to Blair’s speech from a front-row seat but said there was no significance to the identical departure dates. “Well, it’s just a coincidence,” she said.

Council members had nothing but praise for Blair’s management style. Hedgecock credited him with innovative management, promoting such projects as a hyacinth farm to process sewage and a major administrative reorganization of the Park and Recreation Department.

Councilman Ed Struiksma, who with several other council members has criticized Blair for taking so long to study the high fatality rate among San Diego police officers, still called him “a very capable manager. I’m sorry to see him go.”

Blair said repeatedly that it was a miracle that he had survived his aneurysm and another miracle that he had been able to go back to work. Now he is “frustrated” that his health is forcing him to leave, Blair said.

He said he was glad to be city manager during Hedgecock’s recent trial; he had returned to work quickly last fall because of that trial and the “unrest” in the city.

“I thought people would say in the face of all the political turmoil, ‘At least there is the manager,’ ” Blair said.

But now, “for my own peace of mind,” Blair is leaving.